


The Cost of Time

by strangerkindofdream



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Conspiracy, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, also the team learning more about the doctor and her past, also vague thasmin throughout with hopefully something more concrete towards the end, basically just the TARDIS fam having a wholesome and exciting time exploring a new world, thasmin, that is when she actually decides to eventually open up emotionally and let them in, with a bit of angst and emotion mixed in
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 11:55:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22266727
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/strangerkindofdream/pseuds/strangerkindofdream
Summary: When the Doctor and her friends arrive in Apolis, a desert town on the planet Dionaea, they quickly notice something strange about the people there. With the help of some locals, Graham, Ryan and Yaz work to unearth the truth behind the conspiracy plaguing this small town and the Doctor finally begins to confront some truths about herself.
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor/Yasmin Khan
Comments: 16
Kudos: 111





	1. Chapter 1

It was a beautiful day. Twin suns shone in the pale lilac sky, their light warming the sparse vegetation and casting long shadows across the largely barren landscape. It was a quiet afternoon. Calm. That was, until a whirring sound broke the stillness of the dry desert air.

A blue police box materialised, and moments later four figures emerged from behind its creaky wooden doors.

“Right,” the first figure, a blonde woman known to her friends as the Doctor, announced as she stepped forth triumphantly. “Here we are then,” she declared.

The other three figures moved to stand next to her, taking in their surroundings.

“Where?” asked the other woman, a young PC-in-training named Yasmin Khan.

“No idea,” the Doctor replied brightly, grinning.

“Well,” the older man - Graham - began, “I’d say this probably isn’t ancient Rome.” He paused, looking around, “based on the tumbleweed, cacti and general desert-ness.”

Ryan Sinclair, Graham’s grandson and the youngest of the group, nodded his head in agreement. “And the roads and cars and-”

“Oh god you two,” the Doctor interrupted, incredulous, “what a load of complaining!” She threw her arms out to better illustrate her incredulity. “I’ve brought you to the far-off land of... wherever this is,” she paused, looking around, “and the first thing you wanna do is point out what it’s not-” The woman cut herself off mid speech, turning to look at the twin suns suspended in a lavender-coloured sky. “Although...” she continued, pointing the suns out to the others, “I have to admit you might actually be dead on here.”

“Blimey,” Graham said, shading his face with his hand as he gazed upwards, “look at that sky!”

Ryan gasped. “Woah.”

“It’s beautiful,” Yaz whispered, her eyes alight.

“Good instincts, all of you, never doubt yourselves,” the Doctor announced, smiling at her friends. “Now team... gang... fam,” she continued, ignoring Ryan’s eye-roll at her nicknames for the group, “I don’t know about you lot, but I fancy a look around.”

“How ‘bout we start in there?” Graham suggested. The group followed his gaze to a small building a few hundred metres away - even on another planet it was clearly recognisable as a pub.

“Pfft, might as well be back home,” Ryan joked.

“Oi, less of that cheek sunshine,” Graham shot back as his grandson grinned at him. “Come on Doc,” the older man continued, “you know as well as I do it’s the best kind of place to meet the locals.”

“Oh alright,” she conceded, her voice taking on a tone of warning as she looked at the boys, “but I’m setting a one-drink maximum.”

“Aw, what?” Ryan groaned.

“I’m serious,” the Doctor told him, “I’m not having a repeat of what happened on Vatican-Four. And anyway, what’s the point of going to new places if you can’t remember them the next day?”

Ryan paused - she had him there. “Fair point.”

“Well come on then,” Graham called, already a few meters ahead as he crossed the empty road to the pub. The others followed, keen not to let the cockney get too far ahead of them.

“I wonder where we are...” Yaz pondered as they moved to catch up.

“The town of Apolis, founded the year twenty-nine thirty-two by Dr Cronan Mosser, terraforming pioneer,” the Doctor announced confidently.

“As if,” Ryan gasped, turning to face his friend. “How d’you know that?”

“Lucky guess,” the Time Lord said, straightening her coat collar nonchalantly.

“Also,” Yaz added with a sly smile, “it’s written on that sign over there.”

The young man’s eyes followed his friend’s gaze to a large plaque standing a few metres away on a small green. Behind it stood a bronze statue of a rich-looking man in a lab coat - presumably the aforementioned scientist Dr Mosser.

“Worth a try,” the Doctor admitted, flashing a cheeky grin at them both before striding after Graham. “Come on then you two,” she called over her shoulder, “we can’t let Graham have all the fun!”

* * *

The gang took in the scene as they stepped inside the establishment. It was cosy but simple, a few locals sitting at the numerous wooden tables scattered around the room. At the far end there was a battered looking bar, a few more people sitting there on stools and chatting quietly amongst themselves. In the corner some sort of speaker played a slow, easy tune, but the Doctor detected something heavy that seemed to hang in the air.

Her friends, however, didn’t appear to notice anything out of the ordinary as they moved further inside.

“Everything okay, Doc?” Graham asked, hanging back as he noted the frown creasing his friend’s forehead.

“Yeah,” she replied easily, fixing him with a reassuring smile. “Just thinking I might have a bit of a nosey about the place.” She raised her eyebrows at him conspiratorially.

“Gonna try find out – since this clearly isn’t Earth and you have no idea where we are - what planet we’re on?” the man responded, slyly, causing the Time Lord to gasp dramatically, mock hurt, before she flashed him a grin.

“Maybe,” she admitted eventually. “Stay away from the blue...” the Doctor warned, heading in the opposite direction to the rest of the group. “And the green,” she added over her shoulder as an afterthought.

Graham stared after the alien, wondering if she was joking. He decided to heed her advice on the drinks, just in case, and joined the young pair at the bar. Ryan was looking at the numerous bottles behind the counter, marvelling at the variety of colours on display. “Come on then son,” the older man began, addressing his grandson with a cheeky smile. “What d’you fancy?”

Yaz left the boys to it as she pulled up a stool, happy to give the brightly coloured liquids a miss. A red-haired woman of about her age approached from behind the counter, a friendly smile on her face.

“Can I get you anything?” she asked.

“Do you have any water?” Yaz ventured uncertainly, surprised to be presented with a familiar looking bottle barely a minute later. “Thanks,” she said.

“No problem,” the waitress replied, her blue eyes sparkling. “I haven’t seen you guys around this place before,” she gestured to Graham and Ryan who were still scrutinising the bottles behind the counter. “What brings you here?”

Yaz looked over at her friends, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. “Oh, we’re just travelling together and thought this town looked like a nice place to stop off for a bit.” She noticed the other woman’s smile falter slightly.

“Well,” the short-haired girl replied, recovering her bright demeanour quickly, “I hope you have a nice stay.”

“Thank you,” Yaz replied, genuinely touched. “What’s your name?” she asked suddenly, finding herself wanting to know more about this woman already.

“I’m Asta.”

“Nice to meet you Asta, my name’s Yaz.”

“Hope to see you around, Yaz,” the redhead said with a small wave. Yasmin watched as her new acquaintance moved back down to the busier end of the bar, all smiles and charm. If everyone in this town turned out to be as lovely as Asta, Yaz was sure that her gang were bound to have a nice break... for once.

“Hey,” came a soft low voice at Yaz’s shoulder. It was Ryan. “Where’s the Doctor?” he asked, pulling up a seat next to his friend and placing a small glass of glittering red liquid down on the counter.

Yaz shrugged in response. She’d noticed the Time Lord disappear about five minutes ago, poking around somewhere she shouldn’t be, no doubt. “You sure that’s safe?” Yaz asked after a moment, nodding at Ryan’s drink.

“Be fine,” he replied coolly, taking a sip. “It’s nice, sorta like lemonade but more...” he searched for the right word, “more... smoky, I think.” Yaz scoffed at this, finding her friend’s casual approach to alien beverages more comical than concerning. Her smile dropped a moment later as she spotted the Doctor heading towards them with a concerned look on her face.

“What’s wrong?” Yaz asked immediately as the Time Lord appeared at Ryan’s side.

“There’s something off here,” she said, her voice low. “I can feel it.”

“Off how?” Ryan asked.

The Doctor fixed the pair with an intense look. “Not sure yet, just...” she looked around conspiratorially, “not right. Like when you have a dream and everything feels different somehow, even though it all looks the same.”

The younger two shared a questioning glance. “Looks real enough to me,” Ryan commented.

“Hmm,” the Doctor murmured, her green eyes scrutinising the people around her friends, trying to pinpoint any irregularities. She focussed her gaze back on the pair before her. “Why don’t we nip outside for a bit?” she suggested. “Get a feel for the rest of the place?”

“And Graham?” asked Yaz. The trio glanced over to where the retired bus driver sat at one of the long tables, an (already) empty pint glass in one hand as he gestured excitedly with the other, conversing easily with at least half a dozen locals.

“Oh, he’ll be fine,” the Doctor grinned. “Looks right at home, doesn’t he?”

“Believe me,” Ryan agreed with a long-suffering sigh, “he could chat to these people for hours!”

Yaz laughed and shook her head as her group made their way to the door, the Doctor waving across at Graham to keep him in the loop before bundling Ryan and Yaz outside.

“Right then,” she began once they were back out in the hot desert air. “Just a quick look round, get our bearings and we can meet back here in fifteen minutes.” Ryan looked down at Yaz who nodded back in agreement. “Why don’t you both start over there.” The Doctor advised, gesturing towards a small shop on the other side of the empty road.

“And what are you gonna do?” Yaz asked her.

The Doctor pointed back over her shoulder at a solitary building in the middle of the green they had passed earlier. “Never could resist a library,” she said, grinning.

* * *

The Doctor watched Ryan and Yaz set off on their way before turning on her heel and striding across the green.

It was a lovely little town, she decided, very quaint. She noted various buildings lining the opposite side of the road that ran around the edge of the main square where she currently stood. However, as picture-perfect as everything seemed, the Doctor still felt something nagging at the back of her mind, telling her there was something amiss.

It was quiet, she noted, the sound of her solitary footsteps echoing back at her off the surrounding buildings. Almost too quiet. This place had all the signs of a bustling and modern - if somewhat small - town, and yet barely any people were about on the streets. The Doctor felt a wave of unease pass over her as she recognised the distinct feeling of being watched. Although there was no-one much around outside, she was sure she could sense some curtain-twitching going on.

As she neared the library, her eyes fell on a large purple plant that sat alone, looking rather out of place amongst the neat green grass of the town square.

“Interesting flora...” the Doctor murmured to herself as she headed towards it, bending down to take a closer look. Upon closer examination, she determined that the skin of the plant was actually a deep pink colour, with the blue veins beneath its surface causing the main bulbous flower to give off a faint purple glow. Its large petals formed a tight round structure, like a rose bud just before blooming, however this flower had no stem and grew straight upwards from the ground, standing at around a metre tall. “Amazing,” the Doctor whispered, before setting off once more for the library.

Upon reaching the building, she marched up its stone steps and was delighted to find that the doors were actually unlocked. Inside, the small carpeted room was lined with bookshelves, each one stretching from floor to ceiling and positively overflowing with books of all sizes and colours. The Doctor strode towards the nearest shelf, picking a book at random and flicking through it. She glanced back at the title page – _A Brief History of the Town of Apolis_ – surprised to find the book actually rather interesting, before coming across a page that had been almost entirely blacked out.

“Strange...” she said aloud, holding the page up to the light to get a better look. “Very very strange.”

She flicked through a few more pages, intrigued to find yet more paragraphs similarly redacted. The Doctor was just preparing to explore this further, reaching to pick another book off the shelf when a piercing scream suddenly broke through the still air.


	2. Chapter 2

“Well,” Ryan began as he and Yaz walked back out of the shop into the bright daylight. “That didn’t lead to much.”

“Oh I dunno,” said Yaz. “If we ever need some tacky fridge magnets, I think we’ve got the right place.” She grinned at Ryan as they ambled back out to the street. He smiled back.

Just then, a shrill scream pierced the hot desert air. The pair took off immediately, running across the empty road and back in the direction of the square. Ryan briefly considered when exactly he had become someone who ran _towards_ sounds of trouble.

As the pair rounded the corner, they could see two figures on the pavement next to the green. A middle-aged blonde woman in a long-sleeved pink dress was staring at a younger looking woman. The younger of the two was dressed mainly in black and had short red hair... Yaz recognised her as the waitress they had met in the bar only half an hour before.

“Asta!” Yaz cried. The redhead turned and Yaz could see tears in her wide eyes, a look of pure terror on her face. “Asta what’s going on?” Yaz asked, placing a hand on her new acquaintance’s shoulder as she looked between the two women.

“I... I don’t know,” the waitress stammered. “I was just out on my break and-”

“ **JOIN US** ,” the blonde woman across from Asta cut in, her voice surprisingly low.

The remaining trio turned in unison to stare at the woman. Her pale blue eyes were wide and unblinking, her mouth hanging open as she continued to gaze only at Asta.

“What?” Yaz asked, shocked, all manners forgotten. Her police training helped her deal with most situations in a fairly calm and professional manner, but travelling with the Doctor had taught her that there were some things her training could never prepare her for.

“Creepy,” Ryan murmured to Yaz, unable to move his eyes from the blonde woman’s vacant stare. He cautiously reached out and waved his hand in front of her pale face, but she didn’t so much as blink.

Yaz turned slowly to face Asta. “Do you know her?” she asked, grabbing her arm in an effort to get the waitress to focus on her.

“Erm...” the young woman hesitated. She tried to step backwards but the other woman followed, her eyes still fixed on Asta. Yaz and Ryan moved immediately to stand between them, although neither were sure exactly what they were planning to do next.

At that moment the Doctor appeared, putting a hand on Ryan’s shoulder as she squeezed herself between him and Yaz to get a better look at what was happening.

“Hi gang!” she began brightly, instantly putting her friends at ease. “What’s going on?” Her smile was unassuming, but her eyes were hard, betraying how serious she found their current situation.

“We don’t really know; we heard this person – Asta – screaming and this woman just started-” Ryan was cut off as the possessed lady spoke again.

“ **JOIN WITH US**.” Her voice had an edge to it, like a sort of metallic undertone or echo. Just the sound of it caused Ryan to shiver.

The Doctor however was immediately intrigued and stepped closer to the older woman as she deftly pushed the remaining three behind her. “Join who?” she asked, discreetly pulling out her sonic.

“ **THE MOTHER** ,” the older woman continued, her eyes far away. “ **JOIN OUR MOTHER**.”

“Oh my days,” Ryan gasped.

“What mother?” The Doctor asked, narrowing her eyes as she tried to catch the perplexed woman’s gaze.

“ **JOIN US** ,” she repeated, still staring blankly. Suddenly she lunged forwards in an attempt to lean around the Doctor. The gang reacted instantly, stepping backwards to better protect Asta while the Doctor raised her sonic as a precaution. The woman didn’t move, only stared, although her lips were now curved upwards as if in an attempt to smile, but it didn’t quite look right. Her eyes were still blank, and her teeth were bared.

The sight was enough to make the Doctor’s hearts beat faster, never mind the rest of the group, and the young waitress even gasped.

Yaz turned at the sound as a previous thought occurred to her. “You know this lady, right?” she asked again.

“You do?” The Doctor chimed in, spinning to look at the waitress. “Asta, who is she?”

“She’s er...” the younger woman trailed off, looking fearful.

“Asta,” the Doctor repeated, a note of urgency creeping into her voice. “My name’s the Doctor and you’ve already met my friends Ryan and Yaz. We want to help but I need you to focus, okay?” she continued, placing a hand on the girl’s arm. “What is this lady’s name?”

“She’s Mrs Mosser... Anora, I think,” Asta stammered. “Her husband runs this whole town.”

“Mosser?” Ryan asked, the name ringing a bell. “Like on the statue?”

Asta could only nod in reply.

“Alright Mrs Mosser,” the Doctor began, using her sonic to scan the woman. “Anora?” she continued. “Can you hear me?”

The Doctor gazed into the woman’s pale blue eyes. There was barely a hint of consciousness there, no pupil response, no peripheral awareness... if the Doctor didn’t know better, she’d say this woman was in a trance... or possessed.... or hypnotised... or...

 _Or what?_ She silently asked herself. _What am I missing?_

“Anora?” she asked again.

The sonic’s beeping suddenly increased in pitch and the possessed woman groaned slightly. Her eyes rolled shut before she fell forwards, the Doctor catching her and easing her down to the ground slowly. Yaz stepped forwards, supporting Anora as her eyes flickered open again and she began to catch her bearings.

“What...” the woman began, her voice now drastically different to how it had sounded just a moment ago. “What happened?” she asked, gazing up at the group of people surrounding her.

“Oh, just a brief hypnotic trance,” the Doctor announced easily. Too easily, her companions noticed. “Nothing to worry about,” she continued. “You seem to be back to normal now.” The Doctor’s eyes however were fixed on her sonic, studying the readout.

“But... I don’t...”

Yaz bent down to Anora’s level, hoping to reassure her as the Doctor became distracted. “It’s okay, just take a minute,” Yaz advised, her training kicking back in. “My name’s Yaz, and this is Ryan, Asta and the Doctor,” she continued, pointing to her friends. Ryan’s attention was also elsewhere now as he murmured quietly to Asta. “You just had a little fall,” Yaz continued. “We’re trying to find out what happened so don’t worry. What’s your name?”

“I’m Anora,” the woman said slowly, the confusion beginning to lift from her face as Yaz helped her back to her feet.

“You’re gonna be fine Anora,” Yaz reassured her with a small - and hopefully convincing - smile. “Just take it easy. Do you have someone you can call?”

* * *

A few minutes later and the Doctor was still scrutinising the readout on her sonic, having wandered a few metres away from the group to focus. She had been right to be concerned about this place - something was definitely up. The readings were all over the place.

“Well,” she murmured to herself, the frown on her face intensifying. “That’s even less than unhelpful,” she declared to no-one in particular as she shoved the device back in her pocket.

She looked up, scanning her surroundings. By all accounts, this small town looked just as normal as any other. She was standing in the middle of the central green, the quaint library behind her and the pub standing across the street. Just to her left was the big statue of Dr Mosser they had noticed on the way in. The grassy square was surrounded by small houses and shopfronts on three sides, with the remaining side in front of her lined by the empty road. Beyond that... a few plots of land, the odd shack-like house, but mainly just open desert and sky.

Everything _seemed_ exactly as it should, the only thing denoting the place as an alien planet being the twin suns in the sky. Well, that and the strange purple plant she had found earlier. Actually, _plants_ plural, the Doctor amended mentally, noting a few more dotted around the landscape.

They _were_ odd, she decided, unlike anything she had seen before. And they _definitely_ looked out of place in an area where the native flora seemed more or less exactly the same as that of Earth.

She glanced back at her friends, noting that Graham had now re-joined the group. The lady that had been possessed – _not possessed_ , she told herself - hypnotised...? In a trance? Controlled? _Focus!_ She chastised herself mentally, shaking her head. Mrs Mosser – Anora – was no longer with the rest of her friends, having been picked up fairly quickly by a large black car with tinted windows. However, the waitress, Asta, was still talking with the group, and they had been joined by another woman of a similar age.

The Doctor strode back over to them. Something told her the only way she was going to find out the truth was to do some good old-fashioned investigation, starting with interrogating the locals.

“Hello,” she said brightly when she reached the group. “I’m the Doctor,” she told the newcomer pleasantly.

“Hi,” the newest woman replied, a polite expression fixed on her face. “I’m Luce.” She had a concerned look in her dark brown eyes. “I’m Asta’s girlfriend, your friends said you were helping her... before... you said you’re a doctor?”

“Of sorts,” the Doctor replied pleasantly. “How are you doing Asta?”

“Better now,” the redhead replied. “Thank you, all of you.” She smiled at the group.

“Aw no need to thank us,” Graham piped up, all charm. Ryan and Yaz turned on him, more than slightly miffed.

“You didn’t even do anything Graham,” Yaz shot back.

“I brought Asta here a glass of water, didn’t I? Came running once I heard all the commotion from you lot!”

“Pff yeah you’re a real lifesaver,” Ryan murmured, rolling his eyes.

“It’s more than you did, ain’t it?” Graham replied indignantly. Ryan grinned back at him smugly, enjoying the reaction his teasing was getting.

“Guys!” The Doctor cut in, mock scolding. “Honestly, what a way to behave in front of our new friends.” She flashed the young couple a sympathetic smile in an effort to put them at ease.

“Yeah boys,” Yaz added, grinning wickedly at Ryan and Graham. Ryan hit her arm lightly in response.

“So,” the Doctor continued, ignoring the squabbling going on behind her. “Are you both from round here?”

“Asta is,” Luce replied. “She grew up here, but I only moved to this town a few months ago.”

“How come?” Yaz asked.

“Work,” Luce answered shortly, suddenly reserved.

The Doctor found herself studying Luce. Her outfit was fairly basic - a yellow t-shirt and tight blue jeans tucked into black combat boots - and yet something about her stood her apart from the crowd. She wore a nose-stud and two similarly small earrings - pretty, but overall, practical. Her jet-black hair was braided tight against her head, leading up to a wildly curly bun high on her head that seemed to be held in place mainly by a number of brightly coloured biros.

Her eyes were wide and inquisitive, but for all her friendliness, there was something more that she wasn’t saying. There was a reluctance about her - something behind her warm expression that she couldn’t quite hide.

“Right then,” the Doctor continued after a brief pause. “You seem like nice enough people, and me and my friends, we’re not from round here, but we’d like to find out what’s going on.” She moved closer to the pair, suddenly intense. “You’ll be able to give us the inside info about this place,” she declared, eyeing them expectantly.

The couple looked slightly taken aback by her words, so Yaz thought she’d better try translating for them. “Have you seen anything unusual lately?”

“Anything like what just happened before?” Ryan added.

The two women exchanged an uneasy glance before Luce spoke. “Well,” she began uncertainly. “Nothing quite like this...”

“But?” Graham prompted.

They hesitated again, Yaz noticed. “You can trust us,” she said in an effort to reassure them.

“Go on,” Asta finally said, encouraging her girlfriend. “You should tell them.”

“Tell us what?” the Doctor asked, immediately jumping on this small hint that the couple did know something more. “Luce,” she continued, eyes desperate. “I know you’re scared but whatever you know, it could help us figure out what’s happening here, and then maybe,” she paused. “Maybe we can fix whatever is going wrong.”

Luce’s eyebrows rose at this statement, and she looked around furtively before finally replying. “Okay,” she conceded, still glancing around as if she didn’t want anyone to notice her talking to the newcomers. “I’ll tell you what I know, but not here.”

“In the library?” Ryan suggested, but the woman only shook her head.

“You can come back to mine.”

“Oh brilliant,” the Doctor exclaimed, brightening instantly. “Quick trip to Luce’s place? I can’t wait, come on fam!”


	3. Chapter 3

A few minutes later and the group were being led across the empty street. Asta had returned to work after saying goodbye to everyone, seemingly in a hurry to get back to normality.

The Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan followed Luce along the street and then up a gravel path towards a small ramshackle house. The residence was predominantly made of wood, which had faded over time, and the dusty windows were covered from the inside. Creaky wooden steps led up the porch, where there sat an old bench beside the faded blue front door. A few weeds grew through the decking floorboards.

Luce let the team into the house before carefully locking the door behind them. The others began to take in their surroundings.

The décor was rustic, and may have once even been charming, but not anymore. There was no other way to phrase it – the house was a mess. The main room was sparsely furnished, but every available surface was littered with papers and files. Documents also covered the floor in places where no furniture stood.

As well as the numerous papers lying about the place, many of the surfaces had scientific equipment on them - jars with odd-looking specimens, measuring devices and in some cases, what looked like dissection equipment.

Graham looked around with a creased brow, slightly alarmed. “You live... _here_?” he asked incredulously, trying and failing not to sound too judgemental.

“Oh, no,” Luce said with a small laugh. “It’s more of a... temporary situation.”

“How d’you mean?” Yaz asked.

“It’s my friend’s house, he said I can stay here for now while I look for somewhere else...” Luce stated with a brief shrug. “So, what made you guys visit our town?”

“Oh, we’re just passing through, you know how it is,” the Doctor said vaguely as she began to inspect some of the scientific equipment. “What planet is this anyway?” She turned when no immediate answer came, to find Luce staring back at her, a confused expression on her face.

“How can you not know what planet you’re on?”

“Humour me,” the Doctor said brightly.

The young woman still looked rather perplexed, so Ryan thought he’d better elaborate. “We, erm... we do a lot of travelling,” he stated, lamely.

Luce raised her eyebrows at this, taking in Ryan’s awkward expression and the fact that Yaz had rolled her eyes at his words. She decided this group were rather strange but seemed harmless enough... and they _had_ just helped her girlfriend escape a possessed rich lady.

She folded her arms. “Dionaea.”

“Oh!” the Doctor exclaimed instantly, her face brightening as she spun round in a small circle, as if taking in the room again for the first time. “Dionaea! Largest planet in the Vedromana System?”

Luce nodded.

“Wanna explain that in layman terms?” Graham asked.

“Dionaea is one of the pioneering planets - one of the first outside your solar system to be colonised by humans after you start to travel the stars.” The Doctor’s eyes lit up with a childlike wonder as her words came faster and faster. “This place was just a barren rock before your lot arrived and brought terraforming and bio-engineering,” she told her friends. “All this,” she gestured around, “came from your need to explore.”

“That’s awesome,” Ryan enthused.

“So, in the future... we just... move to other planets?” Graham asked.

“You discover,” the Doctor clarified. “Some people, much like in the 21st century - well, the majority of human history, actually - seek to conquer and claim,” she said. “But most just... travel.”

“Like us,” Yaz said, smiling.

Luce regarded the group with curiosity. “So, when you said that you’re travellers... you mean like off-worlders?”

“That’s us,” Ryan confirmed.

“But you’re human?” she continued; her dark eyes sparked with interest. “Where are you from? And how did you get here?”

“Erm...” Graham began before trailing off, unsure of how to explain.

“Yeah,” Yaz cut in, “that’s another complicated one,” she said with an apologetic smile.

The Doctor turned away from the group, studying the room once more. “You said this is your friend’s house?” she asked, getting back to the point.

“Yeah, Tavin,” Luce confirmed. “Well, most people here know him as Professor Dhelo – he’s a scientist. I am too actually,” she paused. “Well, I was.”

“You’re scientists? Brilliant!” the Doctor exclaimed.

“And what’s with the cosy setup?” Graham asked. “Does this Tavin bloke not like visitors or something?”

“Not really,” Luce said with a small smile. “And he does get a bit messy when he’s working.”

“Working on what?” the Doctor asked, now beginning to poke around in the mess of paperwork.

“It’s erm... complicated.”

“Must be a good friend to let you just move in,” Yaz added after a brief and pregnant pause.

“Yeah well,” Luce smiled sadly. “He’s more than a friend really, he’s like... family.”

“And where is he now?” asked Ryan.

Luce avoided their eyes as she scanned the room uncertainly. “I’m not sure.”

“How’s that?” Graham asked as the Doctor abandoned her poking around to come and stand between her friends and Luce. She narrowed her eyes at the young woman.

“There’s something more you’re not telling us,” the Doctor stated. “Isn’t there Luce?” The younger woman dropped her gaze as the Time Lord continued her questioning. “Seems to me that whoever owns this house - your friend, Tavin - isn’t around at the moment... which begs the question... where has he gone?” she asked, her inquisitive voice taking on a firmer tone. “And why are you living here now instead?” the Doctor continued, moving closer. “By yourself?”

Luce dropped her eyes before bringing a hand up to her face, wiping away a tear. Yaz moved towards her, unable to stop herself from reaching out to reassure the distressed young woman.

“Look,” she began gently, “we don’t want to cause any trouble or anything, we just wanna help.” Yaz looked back over her shoulder at the Doctor who nodded her encouragement. “Asta said outside that you should tell us something,” Yaz continued. “What is it?”

The young scientist still hesitated, her eyes darting around furtively.

“What’s got you so scared, Luce?” the Doctor asked, concerned but still cautious. “In order to help you, we need to know the full story.”

“And there’s obviously something up here,” Graham added gently.

Luce dragged her troubled eyes up to meet theirs. “You’re sure you can help?”

“Always,” Yaz replied immediately.

Ryan nodded enthusiastically in agreement. “Of course we can,” he stated confidently.

“Or at least,” Graham considered, “we’ll try our best.” He smiled warmly at Luce, finally managing to elicit a shy smile from her in response. However, as quickly as her smile appeared, it disappeared to be replaced once more by a look of apprehension. She turned her wide dark eyes on the Doctor, a silent question.

“I promise,” the Time Lord told her resolutely, “we won’t let anything happen to you.” She took Luce’s hand and led her over to the worn old sofa, sitting her down as her friends gathered around them. “Now, what’s really going on here Luce?”

The young woman dropped her gaze, taking a deep breath and tucking a stray curl of her black hair behind her ear before she finally spoke. Her voice was quiet, but there was a strength to it - a determination.

“There’s a lab on the other side of town - MossTech. It’s where I used to work.”

“That guy’s name seems to come up a lot,” Ryan commented.

“Who, Ran Mosser?” Luce asked. “Yeah, his grandfather founded this town and now he pretty much owns it.”

“You said you _used to_ work at his lab?” Graham prompted.

“There was... an incident. At the lab. Like an explosion or something. I don’t know much, I swear, I only worked on the smaller projects, but after it all happened... they just made us leave.”

“What, just like that?” Yaz asked. Luce nodded.

“Bit harsh, innit?” Ryan commented.

“So, whatever this incident was, you think it’s connected to what’s been going on? To what happened with Asta and Anora?” the Doctor asked.

“It must be,” Luce stated confidently. “A few weeks ago everything was normal, but now things are getting stranger every day...” she trailed off and her face fell. “Tavin said he had an idea about what they were working on - he’s been trying to figure it out, but he has to be careful.”

“Careful of what?” asked Graham.

“You have to understand,” Luce said, her eyes desperate, “Mr Mosser - Anora’s husband - he doesn’t just run this town, he _owns_ it. He knows everything... controls _everything_.”

“Why does he need to control anything?” the Doctor asked, leaning in closer as her curiosity grew.

“He was - is - working on something,” Luce said, her voice dropping to a whisper. “It’s something secret, something....” she trailed off.

“Something big?” Ryan asked, and Luce nodded in reply.

“And this _something_... did it cause all this? All the strange things that have been happening?” asked Yaz.

“I think so...” Luce replied uncertainly. “I mean, the plants, we thought they were the height of it... they seemed harmless enough, but now...” Her words trailed off again as her eyes filled up, tears threatening to spill over once more. She cleared her throat before continuing. “What happened to Anora earlier - it’s getting more common. Nothing quite like _that_ ever happened before, but people have been getting... strange.”

“So, everyone knows something’s going on?” Graham asked.

Luce nodded. “Most people, I think. The higher ups tried to keep the initial incident under wraps, but the way all this is escalating... it’s kinda impossible now.”

“Do people think it’s Mosser’s fault?” Ryan asked.

“Everyone knows he owns the lab; I mean, it is called MossTech,” Luce added with a humourless laugh. “But,” she continued, “people here know better than to ask too many questions.”

“And what happens if you ask questions?” the Doctor asked, all traces of levity gone from her face.

“Why d’you think Tavin wants to look into all this secretly?” Luce asked rhetorically. “Mosser’s still trying to keep a lid on all this.... whatever _this_ is.”

Silence fell across the room as the group considered the implications of what had just been said.

“Okay,” the Doctor began, jumping up from the sofa suddenly and startling everyone. “Small town, big conspiracy, weird plants and weirder people...” she listed the factors off on her fingers before spinning back to face the others, scrunching up her face. “No offence Luce,” she clarified. “So, what d’you think gang?”

“Sounds like we need to investigate,” Yaz said with a grin.

“And try find out where Tavin’s disappeared off to,” Graham added.

“My thoughts exactly,” the Doctor enthused, beaming. “Good thinking gang, points all round.”

“Hang on,” Graham chimed in as they all began to move back towards the front door. “What about Ryan? He didn’t say anything, why does he get points?”

“Oi,” Ryan exclaimed, “that’s not fair, you didn’t give me a chance to say anything!”

“Well here’s your chance,” Yaz countered, raising her eyebrows at him in a teasing manner.

“I’m confused,” Luce murmured to Graham quietly.

“Best not to question it,” he told her sympathetically whilst herding her along with the rest of the team.

“Okay Ryan,” the Doctor cut in, idly wondering if she should come up with a different kind of points system. “Where d’you think we should start?”

Ryan hesitated for a second, momentarily stumped. “Erm...” he hated being put on the spot. “I wouldn’t mind a look round that old library on the green,” he ventured.

The room fell silent as everyone looked to the Doctor, waiting for her response.

“Brilliant!” she enthused, causing Yaz to groan as Ryan pumped his fist in the air in triumph. “I didn’t manage to finish looking round there before,” the Doctor continued, “and now we have Luce to help us, we’re bound to dig up something interesting!” she announced before throwing open the front door. “Off we go then.”


	4. Chapter 4

The brilliant orange evening light shone through the library windows, highlighting the dust motes spinning in the air. The team were hard at work, digging through the pile of documents and books they had amassed on one of the old oak tables in the middle of the room. They were looking for anything ‘out of the ordinary’, although that was proving rather difficult to identify in amongst all the alien biology and redacted statements. So far, they had found one rather useful book about native botanicals and half an old newspaper article reporting something about strange weather events.

The doctor increasingly found herself studying her surroundings rather than the literature, her fingers probing the bookshelves as she looked for any abnormalities. Ryan had similarly become distracted, preferring to gaze out of the windows at the town around them – something he had also done when he’d been forced to stare at old textbooks back in school.

As Ryan moved to look out of the window at the back of the room, he noticed something that piqued his curiosity.

“Doctor,” he began, beckoning the Time Lord over. “Look at this.” She was at his side in an instant, pulling out her sonic. “What d’you reckon’s in there?” he asked, pointing to an outbuilding sitting a few meters behind the library.

“Hmm,” she mused, scanning the air with the sonic. “Not sure, but I’m getting some strange readings.” She pulled the device back, frowning as she looked at it’s readout. “And what does a library need an outbuilding for?”

“I thought they’d keep all their records and stuff in here,” Ryan replied.

“Exactly,” the Doctor agreed before turning to face the other three. Graham, Yaz and Luce were all still poring over the literature they had found. “Guys, me and Ryan are just gonna pop out the back for a second - let me know if you find anything interesting.”

“No worries Doc,” Graham replied absently, the rest of the trio barely looking up.

* * *

The Doctor and Ryan slipped out of the library’s back door and down the rickety wooden steps. The outbuilding was mainly made of concrete, although it was almost entirely covered with ivy and brambles from years of neglect, with tiny fogged up windows that revealed little of what could be inside.

“Looks abandoned,” Ryan stated, looking over to the Doctor. She didn’t reply immediately, frowning as she studied the small building.

“Then why...” she began, moving closer, “why doesn’t the ivy cover the door?” she asked, turning to raise her eyebrows at Ryan.

“It looks like it’s been cleared away,” the young man observed.

“Like someone’s been coming and going... but they don’t want people to know that,” the Doctor mused, pulling out the sonic screwdriver once more and turning it on the door’s rusty keyhole.

“Hey!” came a sharp voice.

The two turned towards the origin of the voice to see a slight but muscular looking woman walking towards them. She was wearing a dark green t-shirt with ragged old jeans and large black boots, her left arm a tapestry of floral tattoos. Her greying brown hair was pulled back into a short, loose ponytail, with stray strands falling to frame her inscrutable face.

“Oh, hello,” the Doctor began brightly. “Me and my friend were just-”

“There’s nothing worth seeing in there,” the woman cut in, stopping a short distance away with her hands on her hips.

The Doctor’s face became harder as she regarded the older-looking woman. “I think I’ll be the judge of that,” she said firmly. She turned and quickly set the sonic going again, throwing the door open in triumph as the lock finally clicked open. “Oh...” she said, her face falling as she looked around, disappointed.

“Told ya,” the newcomer said, “just old books and records.”

The small room did contain an awful lot of paperwork, as well as a few old boxes and other miscellaneous objects, but the Doctor got the feeling there was still something she wasn’t seeing.

“Oh yeah?” she countered, adjusting the settings on the sonic. There was something else here, and she was going to find out what. She pointed the device out in front of her and as she pressed the button, the room before them started to shimmer like a mirage. “Perception filter,” the Doctor stated. “Bingo!” She dropped her arm as the true room was revealed. It was mainly the same, but at the back an archway had appeared on the wall with stone steps beyond that leading underground.

“Woah,” Ryan murmured, his mind temporarily blown.

The Doctor turned to him and grinned, before stepping towards the threshold of the shack, itching to take a closer look inside. However, just as she neared the doorway, the sound of a laser powering up made her spin back around.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” The newcomer was holding out some sort of weapon, most likely a laser rifle, and pointing it in the Doctor’s direction.

“Ryan, behind me, now,” the Time Lord ordered, not waiting for the young man to move as she quickly stepped in front of him. “And why shouldn’t I do that?” she asked the other woman, her eyes flashing with anger.

“You can’t just go poking around here,” the stranger said sternly. “Who even _are_ you?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” the Doctor shot back confidently. “Sneaking up on unsuspecting tourists, pointing guns at us, hiding secret rooms...” She eyed the woman as she moved closer, taking in her formal stance and weathered features. “What are _you_ then? Military?”

“I was,” the woman admitted begrudgingly, her green-grey eyes locked with the Doctor’s. “Lieutenant Vega, ex-military.”

“I thought as much,” the Time Lord stated.

Ryan could see that the Doctor’s attitude was beginning to rile the new woman slightly, but he thought it best to keep his mouth shut for the moment.

“You still haven’t answered my question,” Vega continued shortly. “Cos there’s no way you’re just tourists.”

“We might be!” the Doctor exclaimed, mock-defensively. “Also, d’you mind putting that gun down?” she asked, her voice starting out friendly and then turning to ice. “Only, I feel like we’d be able to answer your questions a bit more accurately if you weren’t pointing a weapon at us.”

Before the lieutenant could respond, the back door to the library flew open as Yaz ran out and down the steps. “Doctor!” she exclaimed. “We’ve found this-” she cut herself off as she took in the chaotic scene. “What’s going on?”

“It’s alright Yaz, everything’s fine,” the Doctor reassured her, although her eyes never moved from the woman opposite. “Just stay back.”

“Who’s she?” Vega asked, turning to look at Yaz but keeping her gun trained on the Doctor and Ryan.

“ _She_ is PC Khan,” Yaz stated firmly, ignoring the Doctor’s warning as she slowly moved closer. “Is there a problem here?” she asked. She tried desperately to remember her training and force down the fear she felt rising in her chest, her widened eyes locked on her friends.

“It’s okay Yaz,” the Doctor said again, hoping the young officer wouldn’t come any closer. The last thing she needed was another one of her friends getting on the wrong side of this.

“Look,” the lieutenant continued as she glanced between the three not-tourists. “I don’t know who you are, but I think you should leave now.” Her voice was steady, but there was a hint of something else under there... like anxiety or... fear?

“We’re not going anywhere,” the Doctor said, stepping towards Vega, a determined look on her face. “There’s something strange going on in this town and we’re going to find out what it is.”

“Why do you care what’s going on in our town?”

“Cos some of us want to help when we notice things aren’t right,” Ryan chimed in, finally finding his voice.

The woman paused at his words, looking them all up and down in turn, before eventually lowering her weapon. “Who _are_ you people?”

The Doctor seized on this moment of hesitation from Vega to try and get herself back in the driver’s seat, so to speak. “We,” she began confidently, rummaging in her coat pocket before pulling out a small brown wallet, “are from The Bureau of...” She glanced at the paper inside the wallet before shoving it boldly into the other woman’s face. “Conspiratorial and Confidential Investigation.”

Vega scrutinised the paper with narrowed eyes, then leaned back and folded her arms. “That’s not a thing,” she stated bluntly after a brief pause.

“It’s not?” the Doctor asked.

“No, not really,” Ryan murmured.

“Yaz?”

The young officer only shook her head.

The Doctor studied the paper again, scrunching up her face before shoving it back in her pocket with a quiet (but dramatic) groan. “Ugh, worth a try,” she said, annoyed. “Look, my name’s the Doctor, these are my mates - Ryan, Yaz and- wait,” she cut herself off, looking around. “Where’s Graham?”

“Still inside with Luce,” Yaz replied. “We found something that you might wanna see actually.”

“Wait,” Vega chimed in, holding up a hand. “You said you’re with Luce? Luce Che? Scientist?”

“Yeah,” Ryan replied. “D’you know her?”

At that moment the library door swung open again and out came Graham, closely followed by Luce. She was carrying a stack of documents under her arm, a troubled look on her face.

Vega meanwhile had produced some kind of communicator and was talking into it quietly. “Yeah, you better get out here,” she murmured into the device.

“Yaz?” asked Graham, looking around. “Oh, there you are... what are you all doing out here?” He took in the scene and regarded the newcomer warily. “And who’s this?”

“We’re befriending the military,” Ryan replied dryly.

“Ex-military,” Vega clarified, although her gaze was now fixed on the young scientist. She eyed her carefully before speaking again. “Hey Luce,” she said coolly.

“What are _you_ doing here?” Luce asked. Her voice was cold, and her tone caused the rest of the team to raise their eyebrows at each other.

“Just making the rounds,” Vega replied, her face giving absolutely nothing away. “Can’t be too careful round these parts.”

“Erm, sorry,” the Doctor chimed in, unable to stop herself. “But, what d’you mean by that?” she asked.

“I found these guys poking around,” Vega clarified, directing her words solely to Luce. “They could be some of Mosser’s people.”

“They’re not,” the scientist replied instantly, her voice short. “They’re off-worlders. Asta saw them arrive.”

The lieutenant looked at the group with renewed interest, a frown forming on her face. “Off-worlders, huh?” she asked.

“That’s us,” Ryan replied.

“And they’re with me,” Luce declared firmly.

Just then, the sound of approaching footsteps caught the group’s attention, and they turned as one to stare at the outbuilding.

A slight man with dark wavy hair and glasses appeared through the archway and stepped forwards, his brow furrowed. He looked beyond the Doctor and her friends, his eyes fixing on Vega as he moved around the group and out into the open. He wore a similar outfit to the lieutenant, his pale blue top covered by a faded leather jacket, and the same combo of ripped jeans and combat boots that most of the townspeople seemed to be wearing. There appeared to be a running theme here, the Doctor noted as she regarded him carefully - very post-apocalyptic chic.

When he spoke, it was only to Vega, his voice low and serious. “Vega, what’s...” He paused as his gaze fell on the young scientist still standing on the steps. “ _Luce_?” he asked, his dark eyes widening in apparent shock.

“Tavin?” the young woman gasped, shoving the files at Graham and running down the stairs, beaming. “Tavin! Oh my god, where have you been?” Her words ran over each other in her excitement, before she literally threw herself at him. “I was so worried,” she breathed as the two embraced fiercely.

“I know,” he replied, pulling back to look at Luce. “And I’m sorry,” he continued, “but I had so much to do - I couldn’t risk moving my work again...” His words trailed off as he appeared to fully take in his surroundings for the first time. “Anyway, what are you doing out here? I thought I told you to stay inside,” he said, his voice suddenly firm.

“Well I was, but-” Luce began before he cut her off with another question.

“Who are these people?” He moved to stand slightly in front of Luce and Vega, between them and the rest of the group.

“Hello,” the Doctor said awkwardly with a slight wave.

“They’re fine, they’re my friends,” Luce clarified in an attempt to reassure the man.

“Aw, really?” the Doctor asked, touched.

“Doctor,” Yaz cut in, raising her eyebrows at the Time Lord to demonstrate that this might not have been the most constructive thing to say under the circumstances.

“Oh, yeah, sorry,” she said, trying to get back to the point. “My name’s the Doctor and this is Ryan, Graham and Yaz.” She gestured at them in turn and each gave Tavin a brief smile or wave. “And you must be the famous Professor Dhelo?”

“Well, yes, but Tavin is just fine,” the man replied rather self-consciously, shaking the Doctor’s outstretched hand.

“Okay then, Tavin,” the Doctor continued brightly. “You might have guessed, but us lot aren’t from round here - we were just passing through when we noticed some strange things happening in your town and we thought we might be able to lend a hand.”

“You want to help us?” the man asked in disbelief.

“Of course we do!” the Time Lord enthused. “Luce here was telling us a bit more about what’s been going on recently, so we’ve been investigating.”

“That’s why we’re at the library,” Yaz chimed in. “Looking for evidence of anything suspicious.”

“Speaking of which,” Graham piped up, holding out the files to the Doctor. “You might wanna give that a once over, Doc.”

She took the files from Graham but didn’t open them, her eyes still on Tavin. “What d’you think Professor Dhelo,” she asked, “feel like joining forces?”

The scientist looked between the newcomers, his eyes alight with a sudden curiosity. His gaze finally fell on Vega, who gave an almost imperceptible shrug, and when Tavin spoke again, he was grinning - apparently more excited about his new visitors than wary of them. “You say you’re a Doctor?”


	5. Chapter 5

“Well this is... nice,” murmured Graham lamely as he took in the cluttered area.

The group had followed Tavin down the concrete steps and come into a cellar-like room. The space was instantly recognisable as Professor Dhelo’s, mainly due to the element of organised chaos that was similarly present in his house. Much like his living room, the make-shift lab was piled high with papers and books and specimens, as well as an awful lot of what could only be stolen lab equipment.

The Doctor stepped forward confidently, immediately intrigued by Tavin’s work. She ran her fingers over some of the notes on the desks as she looked everything over intently. “Bio-engineering, botany, molecular-level terraforming... this is all yours?” the Time Lord asked, turning back to face the professor.

Tavin shifted slightly, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously. “Pretty much,” he confessed, “although I’ll admit, some of the design ideas were Luce’s... I just brought them to fruition.”

“What is all this stuff?” asked Yaz.

“It’s our research,” Luce breathed, her eyes alight as she scanned the room. “Everything we hypothesised... you’ve been working on it in secret,” she said, turning to Tavin. He nodded. “You should have told me.”

The man sighed. “It was too dangerous.”

“But _I_ could have helped you,” Luce argued, her eyes hard as she glanced over at Vega. “You know that we could work faster if-”

“That’s enough,” Vega cut in, her voice sharp. She was standing further away from the rest of them, guarding the way out. She stood with her arms folded, looking rather intimidating. “Tavin needed someone to watch his back, not-”

“It’s getting worse Tavin,” Luce continued desperately, speaking only to him as she ignored Vega completely. “The people aren’t just fuzzy and forgetful anymore, they’re... changing.”

Tavin exchanged a glance with Vega. “The virus must be spreading,” he murmured, mainly to himself.

“You think it’s a virus?” the Doctor asked, seizing on this new information.

“Based on the limited data I’ve been able to gather,” Tavin said, addressing the whole group, “I’m pretty sure that the phenomenon affecting people must be linked to those plants... but I don’t know how.” He looked around at his work, a frown lining his face. “They must carry a pathogen or produce a toxin or... _something_ ,” he continued, clearly frustrated by his lack of results. “I tried to replicate the plants, their biology... I built tech to try analysing them in more detail, but regrettably... I haven’t got very far.”

“But look at what you _have_ done,” the Doctor enthused, beaming. “All by yourself, working secretly in the dark with barely any resources.” She regarded the professor with interest taking in his shy, awkward frame, his dark, intelligent eyes, his soft but protective words towards Luce. Although unassuming in stature and unobtrusive in nature, there was a quiet intensity about Tavin Dhelo that the Doctor rather admired. “You’re doing this because you care,” she continued, “and I think that’s amazing.”

“For sure,” added Ryan.

Tavin looked down, before sharing a glance first with Vega, and then Luce. The young scientist smiled back at him.

“I like you Professor Dhelo,” the Doctor announced with a wry smile. “Excellent work, five stars!”

The scientist looked rather bemused. “Erm... thanks?”

“Although,” the Doctor continued, squinting at one of the walls, which was covered with equations and diagrams. “If it were me... I’d try looking into replicating the previous terraforming process – see where the plants came from in the first place.”

“Easier said than done when most of your resources have been redacted,” commented Vega dryly.

“Well, hopefully we can help with that,” Graham said, gesturing to the file they had found earlier in the library.

The Doctor was still holding it, unopened, and she passed it back over to Luce willingly, eager to see what the young scientist would present. Luce laid the folder in the middle of the desk, before opening it and pulling out a load of papers. They looked like reports, all small black text on aged and yellowing paper.

“This isn’t redacted,” the Ryan observed instantly.

“Yeah, we thought that was odd,” Graham said.

“I found it underneath one of the bookshelves,” Yaz commented, “like it was hidden or something.”

“Is it... part of the original records?” Tavin asked, his eyes full of wonder. “From the arrival?”

Luce met his gaze, a serious look on her face. “That’s what I was thinking.”

“That’s impossible,” Vega stated.

“Clearly not,” Luce shot back, her expression suddenly stony.

“What is it, Doctor?” asked Yaz as the group converged on the desk, all trying to get a better look.

“It’s a status report. Analogue. Must be one of the few documents left uncensored that describes the founding of this planet, and its subsequent claiming and development by the humans.”

“This,” Luce stated, placing one of the pages on top of the others, “is the most interesting part.”

“What does it say?” Ryan asked, frowning.

* * *

**_Report 22_ **

_Dated 15/01/2929_

_As part of the terraforming process, electrical impulses were directed down into the earth of Dionaea. The initial surge of energy caused strange plants to emerge from the ground, the large bulbous flowers giving off the same hue as the electrical energy pulses. After the energy dissipated, the plants died down, and have not reoccurred since._

_They do not appear to be toxic or have any adverse effects on humans._

_The electrical impulses acted as a jumpstart, stimulating the implanted botanicals to grow, thus initiating the terraforming process. Shortly after, the planet was covered with trees and grass – all varieties usually native to Earth. This accelerated development enabled humans to establish themselves on Dionaea within months._

* * *

The Doctor was the first to speak after they had all read the report. “What year was this town founded again?”

“2932,” Vega replied. “Built from the ground up – even after being made habitable the planet was still effectively empty. Unspoilt.”

“But look at the date,” Yaz chimed in. “2929,” she stated, tapping her finger where it was written at the top of the page. “That’s pretty fast, right?”

“The electrical impulses accelerate the terraforming process,” Tavin said.

“Wait... they actually sent electricity into the ground?” asked Ryan.

“Electro-activation,” the Doctor told her friends. “As part of the terraforming process, electrical impulses are used to stimulate dormant seeds and compounds already in place underground.” She used her hands to better illustrate her point to her friends, who still seemed rather lost. “Think of it like the defibrillator paddles medics use when someone’s in cardiac arrest – the electricity from the paddles shocks the heart back into action. Everything in the universe uses electrical impulses – the principle is the same.”

“Okay...” ventured Ryan uncertainly. “I think I understood some of that.”

Graham folded his arms, frowning. “That makes one of us.”

“So, hang on,” Yaz said, still trying to make sense of what she had been told. “In the future we can use electricity to revive all kinds of organisms?”

“Exactly!” the Doctor enthused brightly. “Makes re-population and terraforming much more efficient.”

“But these purple plants...” Graham began. “They’re linked to this electrical impulse... right?”

Tavin adjusted his glasses before he spoke, his face thoughtful. “It seems that they are... they must be some kind of mutation caused by the pulses... when a large amount of electricity is used it activates the dormant plants...”

“A native lifeform?” asked Luce.

“Potentially...” Tavin murmured, his eyes far away as he became lost in thought.

“But,” the Doctor chimed in, “that still doesn’t explain why they are appearing again now...” she paused for a moment, before her eyes lit up with a new idea. “Unless more electrical impulses have been generated recently?”

“Can’t be,” Vega said. “We’ve been monitoring the local power systems,” she explained to the others, “and there hasn’t been any unusual activity, no surges, no outages...”

“And this report,” Yaz pointed to the file, “says that the plants don’t have any adverse effects on humans...”

“Which tracks with Tavin’s research,” Ryan agreed.

“But we know that it does affect us... or at least some of us anyway,” Luce added.

“Is it just me...” Graham began, “or is there something that doesn’t add up here?”

The group glanced around at each other, seemingly inclined to agree with the older man.

“There’s a lot of contradictions, that’s for sure,” Tavin confirmed. “For now, however, I think we need to know _how_ these plants are interacting with people and see if we can find a way to stop them.”

“Well we can rule out electrical currents,” Luce declared immediately, pulling a pink biro from her hair and beginning to scribble notes on a piece of paper. “Therefore, the interaction must work a different way...”

* * *

As Luce continued to frantically scribble down her thoughts, the Doctor took a few steps back to where Tavin was perched on the edge of his desk. He was watching the young woman intently, a small smile gracing his features.

“I can see why you like her,” the Doctor murmured quietly.

Tavin chuckled softly, his eyes still on the scientist. “She keeps me on my toes.”

“She’s bright.”

“More than you know,” the professor agreed. “When I first met her, she told me that we could better explore the event horizon of a black hole by using quantum field theory in curved spacetime to calculate its mass from inverting the predicted temperature of the space around it.”

The Doctor, impressed, turned to look at Tavin open-mouthed, her eyebrows raised.

“I know,” he agreed. “That was the first day she came to work with me. I knew then she was special.” They watched as Luce pulled yet another of the bright biros from her hair, using it to scribble more notes on the paper. “She is a bit more... eccentric than me, I’ll admit,” Tavin murmured with a small laugh.

“My kind of scientist,” the Doctor said wistfully. Luce reminded her of all the other amazing, innovative humans she had met over the years - Ada Lovelace, Nikola Tesla, Agatha Christie, Charles Dickens and so many more - each one a pioneer in their own field. Much like them, Luce was a genius, and clearly unafraid to work hard to pursue her passion, or what she thought was right.

“Tavin?” Luce called suddenly, looking over her shoulder. “I think I might have an idea... but I need to run some more tests on the plants.”

“I’ve got all the dissection stuff set up at the house,” he replied.

“Great!” Luce enthused, rolling up the various diagrams and scraps of paper. “Let’s get back over there – we could get some plant samples on the way.”

“There’s loads of them between here and your house,” Ryan added helpfully as the team began to leave.

“And,” Graham chipped in, “if we were going back to yours Tavin, mate, maybe you have a bit of spare food we could pinch?”

“Graham!” Yaz exclaimed, slightly embarrassed by her friend’s brazen request.

“It’s fine,” Tavin said, smiling warmly. “I’m sure I can find something for my guests.”

“Aw,” the Doctor said, beaming. “What a generous host!”

* * *

The group ascended the stone steps, back up to the little shack and out into the open. Night had fallen whilst they were downstairs, and the air was cooler now; the faint sound of crickets chirped in the distance. If it were possible, the town around them seemed to have become even quieter than before, with no people at all out on the streets. Most businesses had already closed, and the houses lining the town square were dark, the only light source in the area coming from the streetlamps.

As they moved out onto the green, Tavin paused to fiddle with a dial on the wall of the cabin. After a few seconds the mirage re-materialised, showing the outbuilding as a plain old storage room once more, which Tavin then closed back up, securing the door with a padlock this time.

Meanwhile, the younger members of the group had walked on ahead, with Ryan and Yaz already gathering around one of the large purple plants to help Luce extract a sample.

Now that it was dark, the Doctor noticed that the plants were actually glowing. A gently pulsating light illuminated the main bulb, with tendrils of light reaching up through the veins in the leaves.

“Wow,” murmured Graham at her shoulder. “D’you think it’s safe for them to touch it?” he asked, frowning.

“We’re fairly sure they’re non-toxic,” Vega said, her face impassive.

“Oh well, if you’re fairly sure...” Graham muttered.

“The infections don’t seem to be tied to direct contact with the plants,” Tavin told him. “I’ve been handling them for weeks now and I haven’t displayed any symptoms.”

“Yet,” the cockney shot back.

“It’ll be fine Graham,” the Doctor reassured him. “But, if I could just use my TARDIS to analyse a sample from one of the plants,” she continued, the gears in her brain beginning to turn, “we might be able to-”

“Err Doc?” Graham cut in. “I don’t think that’s gonna be possible right now.”

The Doctor looked at her friend in confusion. Graham only pointed, and the Time Lord turned to follow his gaze, horrified to see her TARDIS being driven past on the back of a jeep.

“No!” she exclaimed. The Doctor broke into a sprint, running straight past the rest of the group, but it was already too late. “Wait!” she shouted in vain as she came to a stop by the side of the road, panting. The Time Lord watched as her precious ship disappeared into the night, her eyes scanning the horizon as the red taillights faded into the distance. “Who were they?” she asked, unmoving, as she heard someone come to a stop beside her on the curb. She knew from the person’s precise footsteps that it could only be Vega.

“Mosser’s people. Military,” the lieutenant clarified, her voice hard. “No point chasing them girlie,” she continued. “Won’t be getting that box back anytime soon. They’ll be taking it to his estate.”

“Girlie?” the Doctor muttered to herself, fixating for some reason on that, rather than the news that her TARDIS was now gone. She heard more footsteps behind her as the rest of the team approached.

“Doctor, what happened?” came Yaz’s panicked voice at her shoulder.

“What’s going on?” Ryan asked.

The Time Lord heard her friends but did not turn, her eyes still fixed in the middle-distance. “They took the TARDIS.” Her voice was low.

“What?”

“How is that even possible?”

“What do we do?”

Their words came out in a jumble of alarm and confusion, and even though the Doctor knew she should try to reassure her friends, she still couldn’t seem to move just yet.

“Look.” This voice belonged to Vega – calm but firm. “Whoever took your friend’s box, they’re probably not done yet. We need to get out of here before they come back. We’re going to Tavin’s house and we’re laying low, okay?” It wasn’t really a question. “Let’s go,” she commanded finally, leading the team into the night.


	6. Chapter 6

“You need to chill out Doctor,” Ryan said from his position lying on Tavin’s sofa. “Have you even slept?”

The Time Lord was pacing back and forth across the living room, as she had been for the past hour. The rest of the group sat around the room in varying states of fatigue. Most of them had been able to catch some sleep over the last few hours, but as far as they were aware, the Doctor had been working through the night trying to analyse the samples. However, it had soon become clear that she had hit a wall, and without the TARDIS... she was stuck.

She hated being limited.

“I am calm, do I not look calm?” the Time Lord asked, her eyes wide as she glanced frantically between the humans. “I am super calm considering some people have taken my TARDIS off to who knows where and we don’t know-”

“Okay, Doc, I think maybe you should have a sit down for a bit,” Graham suggested.

She only shook her head, staring at something none of the others could see. “I’m thinking,” she said by way of explanation.

Luce frowned, suddenly throwing down her notebook in exasperation. She had been taking notes and scribbling graphs for a few hours now, but also didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. Various parts of her plant samples were attached to electrodes and the young scientist had been adjusting power supplies and poking at them, but to no avail. The Doctor had initially tried to help, turning the sonic on the plant samples, but none of her readings were making any sense either.

“This is ridiculous!” Luce exclaimed, beyond irritated.

The rest of the group looked over at the young scientist. Although Tavin and the Doctor were still very much interested in Luce’s ongoing investigation, the rest of the team had slowly drifted away from the action, focused instead on finding a quiet spot where they might be able to finally get some rest.

Even Vega had joined them with this; she was sat away from the rest of the group, looking out of the window as she watched the distant suns rise, her face hard.

“What’s wrong Luce?” asked Graham, stifling a yawn as he painfully rose to his feet, moving to look over young woman’s shoulder at her work.

“It’s like it’s a different plant now that it’s been removed from the ground!” the scientist commented, exasperated.

“What, like its dead?” ventured Yaz, her voice raspy from sleep. She was also determined to contribute to the discussion, even if her mind was still waking up. “Cos you cut it off from the main plant?”

“Not dead...” Luce continued, still not looking up. “Just responding... differently.”

“That’s what I thought,” Tavin told her, frowning as he looked through her notes. “It’s like the behaviour... changes.” He looked less than pleased with this description, even if it was true.

“How can a plant’s behaviour just change?” asked Ryan, rubbing his eyes before looking over at the scientists.

“It can’t,” the Doctor stated, abandoning the paperwork she was holding and striding over to look at Luce’s samples once more. “An individual plant can’t change its biology... unless...”

Her words trailed off as she suddenly bent over the table, scanning the organised chaos as she became lost in thought.

“Nothing can change its biology,” Luce said resolutely. “It’s impossible.”

The Doctor glanced up at the young scientist when she said this, her eyes suddenly sparking with a hint of humour. “Nothing’s impossible,” the Time Lord said, grinning. “Biology _is_ change! All around you, everything here is evolving and growing; this planet changed when you arrived, it changes as your community develops and expands. The world around you changes every day, even now-”

She cut herself off as a thought occurred to her. “ _Oh_!” the Doctor exclaimed suddenly, causing the rest of them to jump. “It’s a hive mind! Except _not_ a hive mind...” she amended, thinking out loud. “More like... an organism. Or... a _multi_ -organism. _Connected_ to the planet, keeping it fresh, keeping it alive,” she enthused. “Using the original electrical impulses to form a network...” Her eyes widened as she moved around the small room, the others watching her as they tried to follow her train of thought. “Like a web under the ground,” she continued. “It’s connected to this planet and its people – that’s why the native citizens are being affected more and more. They’ve lived – _you’ve_ lived,” she amended, gesturing to the locals, “amongst its signals - its presence - for decades, like symbiotes.” The Doctor’s eyes became somewhat glazed over as she continued to mull it over, her tone growing lower and more concerned. “The multi-organism, keeping Dionaea alive... the people, keeping the environment steady...”

She trailed off, frowning.

“Except, it’s not steady,” Graham chimed in. “Not anymore, right Doc?”

“Something must have changed,” she said, resuming her pacing. “In the atmosphere or the town or...” The Doctor turned suddenly, rounding on Tavin and Luce. “The lab.”

“The experiments,” Ryan said, his eyes widening.

Luce nodded in agreement. “Whatever Mosser’s been doing, it has to be connected to this,” she stated confidently, folding her arms.

“But _what_ has he been doing?” asked Yaz. “And _why_?”

“First, we find out the what,” the Doctor told the group. “The _why_ can come later.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?” asked Tavin, wearily. “We’ve clearly hit a wall with our research here, and without more specialist equipment to analyse the plants, or more records and information about what happened before-”

“Why don’t we just go to the lab?” Yaz asked suddenly.

The Doctor finally broke out of her revive at this, turning on the spot to look at Yaz. “Yasmin Khan,” she began, her mouth open in surprise. “You sp-”

“Yeah she speaks your language, we know,” Ryan cut in, his tone tired with only a hint of teasing.

“Erm, can I just ask,” Graham began, leaning forwards. “Isn’t that lab controlled by those military lot who took the TARDIS?”

“Well,” Luce began, “technically it is... but-”

“Tavin,” Vega cut in suddenly, standing. “A word.” She marched towards the front door, not stopping to wait for the professor. He followed immediately and the room was enveloped in silence until the door finally shut behind the pair.

* * *

“Seesh,” Ryan breathed. “What is the _deal_ with those two?” he asked Luce, who was standing with her arms folded, a hard look on her face.

“It’s a whole thing,” she said after a moment, rolling her eyes.

“Do you trust her?” Yaz asked, gesturing towards the door Vega had just led Tavin out of.

The scientist considered this for a while, idly messing with more dials connected to her samples before answering. “Tavin does,” she said, not meeting anyone’s eyes. “That’s enough for me.”

“Well... you don’t seem exactly warm towards her,” Graham observed.

“I’m not.”

“Did something happen?” the Doctor asked, moving closer.

Luce nodded. “Vega betrayed him. A long time ago. And I guess, for me, that was it... but for him...” the scientist sighed. “It’s different. They have a history.”

“What did-” Ryan began, but he cut himself off as the front door suddenly swung open again and the pair returned.

“So,” the Doctor said cheerily as she stepped towards them, wasting no time. “What’s the verdict?” she asked, clasping her hands behind her back and leaning to look at the lieutenant and the professor expectantly.

“Well-” Tavin began before he was cut off.

“No.” Vega said firmly.

“No?” The Doctor’s tone was still playful, but her eyes had grown hard.

“It’s too dangerous,” Tavin stated, his brow creased with concern.

“And the threat of an epidemic taking over your town isn’t?” the Time Lord shot back, her eyes darting between the pair as she raised her eyebrows.

“Of course, that is dangerous too, but I think with more time and-”

Luce chipped in this time, cutting over the professor impatiently. “And _what_ , Tavin? It’s been weeks and nothing has changed. You’ve been hiding out, working on all of this... have you got _any_ closer to an answer?”

There was a pause as Tavin glanced at Vega, then finally back to Luce. “No,” he admitted quietly. Vega folded her arms and sighed. “Well it’s true,” he added, looking over at her, but she only shook her head slowly.

“We need to find out what’s happening, we need more resources!” Luce insisted. “We need to know what happened in the lab.”

“And no-one knows what Mosser was working on?” asked the Doctor. “No-one at all?”

“It was all top-secret...” Tavin confessed, his face lined with regret. “Believe me, if we could remotely hack into their database, we’d have done it already.”

“There’s no remote login, no back door, no access codes...” added Luce. “The only way to access _anything_ is on-site.”

The gang exchanged silent glances; they knew what had to be done.

Vega, seeing the determination on their faces, stepped towards the Doctor in the hope to make her understand. “Look,” she began. “This isn’t something you can just walk into... these people are serious. They know you’re here now, and that’s not good,” the lieutenant told them, her face stony. “Everything here has been kept under wraps for so long, all they do is ‘contain’,” she shook her head. “You lot must have got them worried.”

“But they don’t know about your little set up here, do they?” the Doctor asked, addressing all three locals. “Or at least, not yet...”

“I don’t think so,” the professor answered slowly, his brow creased. “But if they saw any of us with you guys-”

“They’ll probably be coming to check this place out,” Luce finished his thought.

Tavin sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he squeezed his eyes closed. After a few seconds of silence, he finally spoke, his words directed solely to Vega. “We can’t stay here.” The lieutenant stared back at him; her arms folded in defiance. A stalemate.

“So...” Ryan began after a few seconds of awkward silence. “What do we do now?” he asked, looking to the Doctor.

Never one to be defeated so easily, Yaz spoke up. “We’ve gotta keep digging,” she said decisively. “Right Doctor?”

The Time Lord’s mouth was set in a hard line, her eyebrows lined with a frown as she thought through their options. However, as soon as her eyes locked with Yaz’s, she made her decision. “Right,” she agreed, and her friend’s face lit up.

Vega’s eyes snapped towards the Doctor immediately. “Absolutely not. No way.”

“Yes way!” she shot back, incredulous.

Vega turned to face her, stepping closer to the Time Lord in an act of intimidation. Unfortunately for her, this tactic was unlikely to work. “You don’t have any idea how much trouble you will get yourselves into if you keep getting involved in this.”

“Vega,” the Doctor said, her voice low and firm as she appealed to the older-looking woman. “It’s no secret that there’s something happening here, and whatever it is, it’s only getting worse.” Her expression was serious. “Now. You lot have been doing an _excellent_ job of investigating so far, but it looks like, right now, you could use all the help you can get.” She stared the lieutenant down, unblinking, determined to win her over.

“Especially when you’ve got the military running around nicking stuff and trying to keep it all a big secret,” Graham added in an effort to help persuade her.

“And since they probably already know we’re here...” Ryan added as a clincher.

“Sounds like we need some insiders who know how these people work,” the Doctor said firmly. Vega stared her down. “Look,” the Time Lord continued. “Me and my friends are going to find out what is happening here and that means we’re going to look round this lab, whether you lot come with us or not.”

Tavin glanced over at Vega. “We really could do with some help, Min,” he murmured.

“ _Min_?” Yaz mouthed at Ryan as they both raised their eyebrows.

Vega and Tavin stared at each other for a while, a silent exchange, before Vega eventually spoke. “...Fine.”

“That’s the spirit!” the Doctor said, “I knew you’d warm up to me!” She grinned, causing the lieutenant to roll her eyes. “So, gang,” the blonde continued, spinning to face them all. “What do we know?”

“The locals are getting possessed somehow,” Graham began.

“And that possessed lady,” added Ryan, “Mosser’s wife-”

“Anora,” Yaz reminded him.

“Right, Anora. She mentioned something about a mother,” the young man continued. “That was kinda odd.”

“Maybe that has something to do with the hive mind, the multi-organism thing,” Yaz suggested.

“Which we know has to be connected to the plants,” added Luce. “And we can’t find out any more about them here because of all the information being redacted.”

“Like someone’s trying to erase your town’s history,” the Doctor muttered, deep in thought. “And these recent changes, they only started about a month ago?” she asked the locals. “After the incident at the lab?”

“That’s right,” Tavin confirmed. “Although the plants had started to spring up a few weeks before that.”

“So,” the Doctor began, a plan beginning to form in her head. “In order to find out what’s going on _now_ , we need to know what happened _then_.”

“And you’re suggesting that the best way to do that is to go back to that lab?” asked Vega, her voice beyond sceptical. “The place where all this trouble started?”

“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting,” the Doctor stated plainly. “It’s the _only_ way right now.”

“Not to mention that if all this _is_ caused by a virus, you wanna go waltzing into the place it’s coming from.”

“We know it’s not a virus,” Luce chimed in.

“Do we?” asked Graham.

“Think about it,” she continued. “It doesn’t present that way, it can’t be.”

“So... we know what it’s not,” Ryan ventured.

“Exactly,” the young scientist enthused. “Now we just have to figure out what it _is_.”

“And how d’you plan on getting inside the lab?” Vega asked, still unconvinced. “That place is like a fortress; it’s got barbed wire fences, armed guards, cameras...”

“Didn’t you say most of the staff had been sent away though?” Yaz asked, turning to Luce. “Like, weeks ago?”

“Yep,” she confirmed.

“True,” added Tavin, although his face was still lined with the hint of a frown. “But there are also key-card locks on every door, both inside and out.”

“That’s why we’ll need an inside woman,” the Doctor stated with a grin.

“Me?” Luce asked, slightly caught off guard.

“Who else?”

The scientist locked eyes with the Doctor, a thrill of excitement running through her as she realised what they were all about to do. Finally, she would be able to actually _help_ her town, rather than just being sat around, frustrated by hitting so many dead ends. Not just that, but her presence was integral to this plan. She felt a grin light up her face as she nodded her agreement.

“So... what now?” asked Graham after a moment, still struggling to feel good about their plan. “All seven of us are just gonna go sneaking in there, hoping nobody notices us?”

“Actually,” Tavin began, “if we _are_ moving away from here, I would quite like to take the rest of my work over to the library, just in case we do get a surprise visit from Mosser’s people.”

“Right,” the Doctor began, keen to put their ideas into motion. “Graham, Ryan, you stay and help Tavin get this place ready for any spot checks, Yaz-”

“I’m with you,” she confirmed.

“And me,” Luce said determinedly, cutting in before Tavin could discourage her. “I want to get to the bottom of this.”

They all turned to Vega, waiting for her verdict. After a few seconds she yielded, shaking her head and sighing in resignation. “Okay, fine. Since there’s _obviously_ no stopping you...” she began begrudgingly, “I guess I’ll have to drive you over there anyway. Stay safe boys.”


	7. Chapter 7

The early morning sunlight beat down on the bright orange sand like a hammer. There was a light breeze Yaz was glad to notice, as she jumped down from the back of Vega’s truck, but unfortunately it did little to cool the dry desert air. She took in the scene before her as the remaining three women joined her to stand in front of the truck.

Before them stood a sprawling lab complex. Its plain concrete walls were surrounded by a chain-link fence on every side. They had arrived at what Vega had told them was the back of the building, which (thankfully) was devoid of any signs of life. The lieutenant led the group through a small hole in the fence and towards the nearest entrance - a fire door - on the main building.

The place was eerily quiet, abandoned. Yaz felt a shiver run down her spine as she looked around the empty landscape, her eyes taking in the abundance of those odd purple plants. She had the distinct feeling that they were being watched. However, as there was no evidence of anyone else being present, Yaz attempted to bury that thought in the back of her mind for now.

As they reached the door, the Doctor pulled out her sonic in preparation to mess with the lock, but Vega held up a hand to stop her before turning the handle and simply pulling the door open.

“Huh,” the Time Lord mused as the group made their way inside. “Not lockdown so much as abandon ship,” she muttered.

“Shouldn’t there have been some sort of quarantine?” asked Yaz, frowning. “If something went wrong?”

“Best guess... they didn’t know what to quarantine,” Vega replied, striding forwards confidently. “Or how.”

“Must’ve left in a hurry,” the Doctor agreed, her eyes widening as she scanned the room that they had arrived in.

It was a large storage area, about six metres across with filing cabinets and specimen cupboards lining all four walls. Clearly it was once an orderly room, but it was now a chaotic mess of scattered papers and broken glassware. Various pieces of scientific equipment were still buzzing away, presumably having been left on accidentally by the technicians in their hurry to leave. The Doctor reached over to switch off a centrifuge, with Luce following suit for the incubator and autoclaves.

“This feels wrong,” Yaz commented, trying not to get too creeped out by the scene. It was as if all the scientists had suddenly disappeared to leave the whole building quiet and still, but all the lights and machinery were running as if the staff were still present.

The group moved carefully through the room, following Luce who led them out into the corridor beyond, and down the narrow hallways before taking a left and finally arriving in a great foyer. It reminded Yaz of a hospital; white, shiny and new, but also sterile and uninviting.

“Mosser’s office is just upstairs,” Luce said, heading towards the staircase, closely followed by Vega. The Doctor however, had stopped, a frown colouring her features as she spun around in a small circle.

Yaz turned to look at her friend. “What’s up Doctor?”

“Not sure yet,” the Time Lord said vaguely, her eyes scanning the large room. Suddenly, she dropped to her hands and knees, bending to place her ear against the floor. “Everyone shh...” she commanded.

The remaining three women looked at each other in bemusement, before Vega decided to state the obvious.

“We didn’t-”

“Shh!” the Doctor exclaimed, cutting the lieutenant off instantly and causing the older woman to clench her jaw. “Can you hear that?” she continued, looking up at the trio of blank faces. “Yaz?”

“Erm...” The young officer bent down awkwardly.

The Doctor scrunched up her face in disappointment before grabbing Yaz’s hand and pulling her gently downwards. “Here,” she enthused, placing her friend’s hands on the tiled floor. “Feel that?”

Yasmin glanced up at the Doctor, momentarily stunned by how close their faces were. She paused, her dark brown eyes roving over her friend’s features before she remembered that she was meant to be answering a question. She tried her hardest to focus, closing her eyes as she concentrated.

Yaz could feel a dull vibration rising up through the tiled floor and as she leaned down, she could also hear a distant thrumming. “Something’s still running down there,” the young woman murmured, looking back up at the Doctor.

“What’s down there Luce?” the Time Lord asked, helping Yaz up as she also got back to her feet.

Luce frowned. “Nothing, it’s just... archives and records and stuff.”

“Sounds like a lot of noise for some old filing cabinets,” Yaz observed shrewdly.

“Have you ever been down there yourself?” the Doctor asked, still pressing the scientist.

Luce, however, shook her head. “I’m not authorised.”

“You’re not authorised to access records?” asked Vega, frowning as she finally joined the discussion, now keen to discern the truth of the situation. “Seems odd.”

“Very odd,” the Doctor agreed, her expression firm. “How do we get down there?”

“I... don’t know,” Luce admitted. The scientist seemed more confused than anything else, most likely wondering why she’d never stopped to question the inconsistencies in what her bosses had told her. Something tugged at her memory, an old joke. “We used to say that there must be a super-secret lift somewhere, since the stairs don’t seem to go any further down.”

“Hmm,” the Doctor murmured, pulling out her sonic and scanning the air. She frowned at the device, adjusting some dials before holding it out in front of her. It beeped steadily as the Doctor walked around the perimeter of the large reception foyer, before the beeping increased suddenly as she passed the main desk. The Time Lord stopped abruptly, moving behind the desk and through the doorway she could see behind it. The room she entered was small, and seemingly empty, but she continued to scan it as the others filed in behind her. Once again, the sonic’s beeping increased as the Doctor moved, growing louder and more rapid as she neared the back wall. She stopped to fiddle with the device again before pointing it at the base of the blank white wall.

There was a brief shimmer as the wall seemed to become fluid before it settled, and a lift door appeared.

The Doctor turned on the spot to look at Luce. “Interesting,” she stated accusingly, placing her hands on her hips. The scientist however was staring at the lift doors open-mouthed, her face clearly betraying her shock.

Vega spoke first, her expression rather more controlled than Luce’s, but still betraying some surprise. “That looks like...”

“Our perception filter,” Luce finished.

“Yours?” Yaz asked, more than a little confused by this point.

“There was one back at the library,” the Doctor explained. “Cloaking the outbuilding to hide Tavin’s work downstairs. It looks like he didn’t just build the one.”

“Did you know about this?” Vega asked Luce sternly.

“I... I mean, we built it, together – me and Tavin. But... it was just a prototype. It was only for a bit of fun really, to see if we could create such a thing, but,” she paused, frowning, “it was stolen. Like, _months_ ago. I asked Tavin if we could make another, but he said it was too risky - that it must have been taken by someone dangerous...”

“Someone with something to hide,” the Doctor mused, turning back to inspect the lift doors. “Looks like he was right.”

“I can’t believe he built another one and didn’t tell me,” Luce murmured, her face falling.

There was a brief pause before Vega replied in a small voice. “It was to protect you.”

The two women shared a long look before Luce finally nodded her thanks to the older woman.

“Okay you two, no need to get all sappy,” the Doctor cut in causing Yaz to stifle a grin. “How about we take a look downstairs then?” she asked the others, not waiting for an answer before sonic-ing the lift doors open and stepping inside confidently, closely followed by Vega. The Doctor raised her eyebrows as she turned to face the lieutenant. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were starting to enjoy this,” the blonde observed cheekily.

“We’re here now,” Vega replied, deadpan. “Might as well get to the bottom of all this.”

The Doctor fixed her with a grin causing the older woman to roll her eyes.

“You guys coming?” the Time Lord asked, turning back to see Yaz and Luce still standing in the empty room.

“Come on,” Yaz encouraged Luce, gently pulling at the scientist’s sleeve and leading her to join the others.

* * *

“So,” the Doctor began, glancing over at Vega. “How long have you and Tavin known each other?”

The group were currently walking down yet another long empty corridor - the Time Lord out in front with the lieutenant by her side, the young police officer and scientist trailing a few metres behind them. With only one level to traverse, their journey down in the lift had been short, bringing the women out into a foyer almost identical to the one on the floor above.

Vega stared straight ahead, considering the prospect of outright ignoring this question altogether. However, even though her interactions with this strange woman had been fairly limited so far, they had taught her that this ‘Doctor’ was nothing if not persistent. And intelligent. There was no point trying to deceive her. “Thirty years, or thereabouts,” Vega admitted, her voice as close to emotionless as she could manage.

“And you’ve always been friends?”

“Mostly.”

“Luce said you betrayed him?” the Doctor continued, still firm on her path of enquiry.

The lieutenant sighed. “There was a... disagreement a few years ago. He was working on something that could have gotten him into a lot of trouble... and he wasn’t being so careful about his investigation back then.” She paused, taking a breath before clenching her jaw as she continued. “If the wrong people had discovered what he was doing... if he’d learned too much and they’d found out at the wrong time...” She shook her head. “I had to stop him from getting too far with his research.”

The Doctor observed the military woman with interest before the pieces finally fell into place. “You reported him,” she stated. Vega flinched almost imperceptibly as she looked straight ahead, but the Doctor still caught it.

“I couldn’t risk them finding out too late,” the lieutenant told her. “If he’d had all the facts...” she trailed off before clearing her throat. “Let’s just say he might not still be here.” Vega finally glanced at the Doctor; her steely-grey eyes hard. “The people I worked for back then – the military people in charge of this town,” she clarified, pausing. “...They don’t mess around.”

“Yeah,” the Time Lord agreed grimly. “I’m getting that impression.”

She considered what Vega had just told her, confident that it rang true. Of course, the lieutenant did seem rather... stoic, but her attitude so far seemed to indicate a woman who wanted to protect people more than anything else. Even if that meant some people were going to dislike her.

“What about Luce?” the Doctor asked after a brief pause. She was surprised when this question elicited a small (albeit, somewhat harsh) laugh from Vega.

“Let’s just say she doesn’t exactly share Tavin’s forgiving nature. He eventually understood why I did what I did and was happy to let me help him this time around, but Luce...” Vega shook her head, smiling ever so slightly. “She’s young and headstrong.”

The Doctor noted a hint of kindness gracing Vega’s otherwise tough expression. “You care for her.” It wasn’t a question. Vega only nodded.

“She can be... stubborn sometimes,” she admitted, “but her heart’s in the right place.”

“Sounds a lot like someone else I’ve met recently,” the Doctor commented, beaming.

Vega rolled her eyes again.

* * *

“I can’t believe there’s so much more down here,” Luce announced as the group happened upon yet more laboratory workrooms.

They had continued along the corridor before coming to some shallow steps, and at the bottom they had found a near replica of the labyrinth of rooms on the floor above.

The labs down here were more open plan, but darker since there were no windows, the only light coming from the harsh white strip lights on the ceiling (some of which were flickering intermittently).

The paperwork in this part of the lab seemed more orderly than the chaotic scenes upstairs and any specimens seemed to have been carefully contained, the equipment safely turned off. However, on the far side of the lab a large display screen on the wall was glitching where the monitor had been fractured, presumably by the now-shattered mug littering the floor underneath.

“Seems like the famous Mr Mosser has a bit of a temper,” the Doctor commented, her face hard as she moved towards what was presumably his desk. It was larger than the others, piled high with neat stacks of folders at one end, assorted glass vials containing various purple liquids at the other. The Doctor became slightly more alarmed when her eyes fell on a small syringe that was lying next to one of the vials. It had clearly been used to inject some of the purple liquid into... something.

Vega and Luce meanwhile were circling the large fume cupboard in the centre of the room. Its chimney ran straight up to the ceiling, and its main workspace had glass walls, meaning it could be accessed on all sides. Inside they could see numerous test-tube racks, and each one had more of the purple samples contained within.

“What d’you think this is, girlie?” Vega asked Luce.

“Not sure,” the scientist replied absently as she reached inside to pull out one of the tubes. She held it up to the light to get a better look. “If I had to guess... some sort of distillation from the plants?” she ventured. “It’s the same colour.”

“Might come in useful,” Vega suggested, handing Luce some stoppers which allowed the younger woman to close up a few of the samples just as the Doctor reached them.

Luce handed the tubes over to the Doctor who took them eagerly, inspecting them briefly before placing them in her pocket.

“Good thinking you two,” she commented, grinning at them both. “I can’t analyse them here since the computers seem to have been wiped,” she stated, and her face fell. “If I could just get to the TARDIS...” she began wistfully, before Yaz’s voice suddenly broke into her train of thought.

“Doctor,” the young woman called from across the room. “Over here!”

The blonde jogged across to her friend, pulling out her sonic as she ran. She joined Yaz where she was waiting at a corner towards the back of the room. Peering around the corner, the Doctor could see what Yaz had found - there was a blind end to this small corridor and on the back wall was an archway lined with cautionary tape and biohazard warning signs.

“Secret entrance number... three?” the Doctor asked of no-one in particular as Vega and Luce joined them. “Four? I should be keeping count at this rate,” she muttered as she strode over to the archway and peered into the gloom. There were metal steps leading yet further underground, and when the Doctor pulled out her sonic to scan the area, it registered some electrical activity taking place below. “Hmm,” she murmured.

“What is it?” Yaz asked, intrigued.

“Could be nothing,” the Time Lord stated, eyes still fixed on her screwdriver. “Then again,” she continued, spinning back to face the others, “could be something...”

The blonde scrunched up her face as she made a decision, before turning and ducking under the hazard tape.

“Erm, are you sure that’s safe?” Yaz asked uncertainly, stepping forward cautiously.

“Not at all,” the Doctor replied brightly, causing Yaz’s brow to crease with concern. The young officer took another step, but the Doctor held out her hand in warning. “Stay here,” she told her companion firmly.

“But-”

“I mean it Yaz.”

“She’s right, girlie,” Vega said gently, laying a steadying hand on Yaz’s shoulder. “Better safe than sorry.”

Yaz locked eyes with her friend, trying her best to stay calm despite her heart hammering in her chest. She didn’t like this one bit. “Be careful,” she finally said, her voice low.

The Doctor nodded solemnly before she began to descend into the darkness, sonic outstretched before her. She noticed that same muted thrumming growing more defined as she travelled down the metal stairs, the sounds of her solitary footsteps echoing around what sounded like a small vestibule.

As she reached the bottom, she followed the low buzzing of her sonic, coming to a stop in front of a big metal door.

“Now what’s behind here...” she murmured to herself, trying the handle. Locked.

“Found anything?” came Yaz’s faint voice.

“...Maybe,” the Doctor called back distractedly, fiddling with the mechanism. It wouldn’t budge. “Locked door,” she murmured to herself again. “I do love a locked door, always something interesting behind them.” She adjusted the settings on the sonic as she rambled, before turning the device on the door. There was a lot of clanking within the mechanism until finally the sound of a heavy bolt sliding aside. “Bingo!” the Doctor exclaimed happily, grabbing the handles and yanking the colossal door towards her.

Poking her head around the door, she was faced with yet another long dark corridor, much like the ones upstairs, the only difference being the orange flashing lights bouncing faintly off the walls. They didn’t provide anywhere near as much light as the bright white ones upstairs, reminding the Doctor more of a police siren’s light - designed to alert people rather than guide them. This combined with the faint ringing of some sort of faraway alarm made her stomach start to knot.

She pulled the door open wider and slipped into the corridor, lifting the sonic again as she started to move cautiously along. However, as the sonic lit up the length of the hall, it showed something that caused her hearts to race. The hall before her wasn’t just dark. The air was thick with spores.

The Doctor quickly pulled her coat sleeve up, using it to cover her mouth, but it was already too late.

She moved back behind the door, beginning to cough as she started to close it in an effort to keep the spores contained. She felt her sonic slip from her grasp as she began to sway, her vision growing dark and a hissing sound filling her ears.

The last thing she was aware of was Yaz’s shrill cry of “Doctor!” as the floor came rushing up to meet her.


	8. Chapter 8

It had been silent for a long time.

Every self-preservation instinct Yasmin had was screaming at her to stay put, but she knew her friend could be in danger down below. She shrugged out of Vega’s grip as she inched closer to the stairwell, her fingers playing with the hazard tape absentmindedly as she listened to the nothingness.

There was a distant clang as a door was slammed shut and she felt a brief rush of relief as she heard the Doctor’s approaching footsteps. However, this relief was short lived.

The sound of a crash had Yaz breaking through the tape and running down the steps before she could stop herself, shouting the Doctor’s name in a panic as she descended. She ignored the calls of the others behind her as she ran.

Yaz felt her stomach drop as she arrived to see the Doctor lying unconscious on the concrete floor.

“Doctor!” the young woman cried again, dropping to her knees beside the Time Lord. She reached out and tentatively placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder, but when there was no response, Yaz shook the Doctor harder. An intense panic gripped the officer as she turned her friend’s limp body over and saw her eyes closed. Yaz quickly checked the Doctor’s wrist for a pulse, breathing a sigh of relief when she finally felt the twin heartbeats there. She reached to pick up the sonic where it had fallen from the Doctor’s grip and placed it back inside her friend’s coat pocket. Yaz leaned back to rest on her knees then, but still kept hold of the Doctor’s hand.

It felt, to Yaz, deeply wrong to see the Doctor so vulnerable, so small. She was laying on her side, her short blonde hair covering her face where she lay, and Yaz found herself reaching towards the Time Lord’s face, gently brushing her hair aside and tucking it back behind her ear. She gazed at the other woman softly breathing in and out, relieved to see no immediate signs of injury present, although that did little to quell the anxiety currently dominating her system.

After what felt like an age, Yaz finally heard the approaching footsteps of her new acquaintances. She turned her head at the sound of their arrival but made no effort to move from the Doctor’s side.

“What happened? Is she okay?” It was Luce who spoke first as Vega followed her down the metal steps.

“I think so... she’s alive,” Yaz breathed, trying not to think about anything more just yet.

“We need to move,” declared Vega, her wide grey eyes darting around the area.

“But shouldn’t we-” Luce began, gesturing to the big metal door the Doctor had clearly just come back through, but Vega cut her off.

“ _Now_ , Luce.”

If there had been any doubt before, there was none now - this was a command and the lieutenant expected them to obey. If Yaz had to guess, she’d say the tight-lipped woman was scared more than anything else... and that alone was enough to motivate the young PC to get a shift on.

“Okay,” Yaz agreed, hurriedly wiping her eyes before standing. “Help me carry her?” she asked, turning her pleading eyes on Luce who simply nodded in response. They each took hold of an arm, draping them over their shoulders as they propped the Doctor up between them. Yaz kept a death grip on her friend’s waist as they began to move.

“Right? Let’s go,” Vega commanded finally, moving to lead the group back up the stairs.

* * *

The atmosphere in the truck was tense to say the least. Luce sat quietly in the front passenger seat, apparently ignoring the ongoing quarrel.

The Doctor had come to just as Vega was pulling away from the lab, having been bundled in the back bed of the truck with Yaz. The Time Lord was not happy to be leaving so soon, and quickly filled the others in on what she had seen with the hope of convincing them to turn back.

“We need to find out what they were doing down there,” the Doctor declared, still firm on her point. She needed to find out what those spores were and how they were being used.

“Look-” Vega began.

“ _And_ ,” the blonde continued, “more importantly,” she paused, a sinister tone colouring her next words. “I want to know _why_.”

“Yeah, well,” Vega muttered, glancing at the Doctor in the rear-view mirror, “I think we might have a bigger problem on our hands right now.”

“What?” the Doctor scrambled forwards, using Yasmin’s steadying arm to pull herself into a sitting position so she could see out of the back of the truck. “Oh!” she gasped, feeling her jaw drop.

Apparently in the short time that she’d been unconscious, the sky had turned from the calm lilac it had been that morning to a dark and angry grey. Clouds had formed in a circle over the now distant lab building, red lightning striking against the roiling sky as the clouds churned above.

“We have to get back there!” the Doctor exclaimed once again, crawling back towards the front of the truck.

“Are you mad?” Vega asked gruffly.

The woman considered this for a second. “Possibly,” she conceded, “but we can’t just turn our backs on this! If it spreads-”

“Then we need to fall back and prepare,” the lieutenant insisted, her voice sharp now.

There was a beat of silence as the two locked eyes. The Doctor felt her resolve weaken as the seconds ticked by – she desperately wanted to investigate the lab further, but she knew that Vega currently had the high ground, and truth be told she did still feel rather unsteady... And her head _did_ actually hurt quite a bit...

“Vega’s right Doctor,” Yaz said gently, placing a hand on her friend’s shoulder encouraging her to sit back.

The Doctor nodded slowly, finally starting to think logically as the fog began to clear from her brain. “How did it happen?” she asked, dropping back down next to Yaz. She winced as the back of her head bumped against the metal truck wall.

“As soon as you opened that door all hell broke loose,” Luce explained, eager to chip in. “The spores didn’t get out, but it’s like we, I don’t know... triggered something.” The scientist paused as she scribbled notes down in a journal. “It was like an earthquake or something, and by the time we got outside...” she trailed off, gesturing towards the sky.

The Doctor looked back at the swirling cloud formation in the distance, her eyes scanning it, trying to piece the events together. They had entered the lab no problem, but as soon as she had opened that sealed door - as soon as she’d found those spores...

Something had obviously changed.

The sky was angry, roiling, casting an odd light on the landscape and the even odder plants. Those too looked different now... bigger maybe, or brighter.

Yaz, noticing that familiar calculating expression on the Time Lord’s face, glanced back as well. She felt uncomfortable when she looked at the storm above, almost as if she was being watched... judged. “It feels...” she started, barely aware she was even speaking, “angry.”

“A sky like that,” Vega began, “hard to find another word for it. Best to just get as far as possible before the dam breaks, so to speak,” she advised grimly, eyes still on the road.

“No, but...” Yaz continued to stare at the sky open-mouthed, unable to tear her eyes from it. The air was cold now. She felt the hairs stand up on the back of her neck. “It’s like I can... feel it?”

“Don’t be drawn into it girlie,” Vega advised, “we’ll be back inside soon.”

The words were spoken kindly, and Yaz knew lieutenant meant well, but something about them still managed to rile her slightly.

“I think Yaz is right,” the Doctor insisted. “It feels like more than just an ordinary storm...” she trailed off, pulling out the sonic and aiming it towards the angry sky, fiddling with the settings. “I’m not getting any- AH!” The Doctor cut herself off with a gasp, dropping the sonic as she brought a hand to her temple, shutting her eyes and wincing in pain.

“Doctor!” Yaz exclaimed, bending down to get a look at her friend’s face.

“It’s okay, I’m fine,” the blonde reassured her between gasps. “Just a... a headache or something,” she said vaguely, before straightening back up slowly. “It’s gone now.”

“Are you...” Yaz trailed off as she met the Doctor’s eyes. The Time Lord had an intense look on her face, one that told the young officer it would be better to keep quiet for now.

“You must’ve hit your head pretty hard when you fell,” Luce stated, her eyebrows knitting together in concern as she turned to face them. “I can take a look at you when we get back Doctor,” she offered.

“Oh no,” the blonde declined politely, “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Either way you should probably take it easy,” Vega said, looking back at the trio over her shoulder.

“Yeah,” the Doctor agreed easily, flashing Luce a quick (and what she hoped was a reassuring) smile. “Yeah I should probably rest, you’re right.”

Yaz raised an eyebrow at this, fixing the Doctor with a questioning gaze – she had never known her friend to concede so easily. The Doctor winked back when she noticed Yaz’s confusion, hoping this would be enough to loop her in. Of course, the young officer caught on immediately, nodding back quickly to show that she understood.

They would keep quiet and attempt to stay on the lieutenant’s good side... for now, at least.

* * *

The four women rode in silence for the next few minutes before eventually arriving back at Tavin’s rickety little house. The Doctor jumped out of the back of the truck before it had even stopped, striding determinedly up the creaky wooden steps and bursting through the front door. She came face to face with Ryan who had clearly been hovering in the hallway.

“Doctor!” he exclaimed, wringing his hands.

“Is she here?” came Graham’s voice before he appeared around the corner of the hall. “Oh, thank god! Where the bleedin’ hell have you two _been_?!” he asked incredulously.

“Chill your beans Graham,” the Doctor replied as she swept past the pair, earning a sharp glance from the Londoner. The rest of the party arrived at this point and followed the Doctor into the living area where they could all congregate. “Honestly,” the blonde continued, her hands on her hips. “I leave you two alone for a few minutes-”

“Three hours,” Ryan chimed in.

“Fine, a few _hours_ ,” she conceded, “and you’re acting like the world is ending!”

“Well it might be for all you know,” Graham shot back, folding his arms as he came to stand opposite her. “Have you _seen_ what it’s like out there?!”

“Okay, we’ve all seen the big scary cloud-” Vega started before Graham cut her off.

“Oh no, we ain’t talking about that. We’re talking,” he paused, moving to the window, “about this!” With a dramatic flourish, Graham ripped the sheets of newspaper away from the windowpane and gestured to the scene before them.

This side of the house was facing back towards the main town square, which was now bathed in the eerie cold grey light of the sky. The glowing purple plants which had once been so few in number now littered the green expanse, each one seeming bigger and brighter than before. It was not however, _this_ strange scene that caused the group to gasp in shock, but rather the people dotted throughout it.

Out on the green about fifty or sixty people were standing at various points within the maze of purple plants. Each had a blank expression on their face, and they were all gazing up at the sky in a daze, their mouths hanging open. A few in the crowd rocked back and forth where they stood and some shambled from place to place, but most were just stood - stock still and unblinking.

It was Luce who spoke first as she slowly turned back around to Graham and Ryan, her face a picture of disbelief. “That must be half the town out there...”

“Oh my god...” murmured Yaz, recognising some of the people she’d seen the day before when they’d arrived. _As if that was only yesterday,_ Yaz thought to herself.

“What happened?” asked the Doctor, spinning back to face her friends.

“And where’s Tavin?” Vega asked.


	9. Chapter 9

“I’m here, I’m fine,” Tavin stated matter-of-fact as he hurried in through the front door, shutting it carefully behind him. The professor came and stood at the side of Vega, and he gave her a soft nod before they both turned their attention to the group.

Yaz noted that Tavin’s house was considerably less cluttered than before and she assumed this meant he had been successful in moving his work over to the library.

“Did you get the last of it over there?” Ryan asked Tavin.

“Pretty much,” the older man confirmed.

“Wait,” Luce began, eyes wide. “You’ve been out there? Just like... walking about?”

Tavin nodded curtly. “They don’t seem to be hostile... they don’t seem to be, well, anything really...” His words trailed off as his face took on a concerned expression. “It’s like they’re in their own private worlds.”

“I don’t...” Luce began, but she seemed unable to continue. “How did...”

“To be honest, we don’t really know what happened,” Graham admitted, rubbing the back of his neck as he looked only at the Doctor. “One minute everything was fine and then...” He gestured around vaguely, a deep frown playing about his features.

“Yeah,” Yaz began uncertainly. “We might’ve had something to do with that, actually.” She exchanged a troubled look with Luce and Vega before looking to the Doctor.

The Time Lord’s attention, however, was elsewhere. The blonde had taken to pacing the room (much like she had the day before), hands gesticulating as if she were giving a speech although no audible words were spoken.

Yaz took this opportunity to update the rest of the group on what had occurred in the lab, sparing no detail about what they had found, or why they’d had to make such a quick getaway.

“There was something still running down there... something big,” Yaz concluded. “The Doctor scanned it, but-”

“We didn’t even get close,” Luce stated, crestfallen.

“Wait a second,” Ryan began, more than a little confused about what had occurred. “So, you guys are saying that this storm... is somehow controlling these people? I thought we said it was the multi-organism electrical plant thing?”

Yaz frowned – that was a fair point. The group all turned to the Doctor for an explanation, but it was Tavin who chimed in. He’d had a hand on his forehead for most of the conversation as he took in the new information, but it dropped from his face as his mouth fell open.

“They’re connected,” the scientist breathed, his eyes wide.

“What are?” Vega asked, speaking of the rest of the gang as they tried to play catch up.

“The plants and the storm... they’re one and the same, they must be...”

“How can they be the same?” Luce asked. “Biology and meteorology can’t be the same.”

“Not in a linear sense, but there must be a link in there somewhere,” Tavin continued, eyes wild as he moved to the window to stare up at the ominous clouds.

There was a beat of silence as they all considered this, the only sound in the room that of the Doctor’s relentless pacing footsteps.

“Can’t you scan it Doc?” Graham asked finally, bringing the Time Lord back to the present moment.

“Hm?” she asked, stopping in her tracks.

“The storm I mean?” Graham clarified. “Or even the people? Can’t you scan them with your sonic? See if there’s a link?”

The Doctor scrunched up her face before shaking her head. “I don’t think so, not this time.”

“Why not?” asked Ryan.

“We tried to use it before...” Yaz explained. “In the back of the truck when we were leaving, but it didn’t work.”

Graham and Ryan frowned, clearly confused.

“It’s not an ordinary storm,” the Doctor said vaguely, moving past Tavin to look out of the window once more. “It’s like it was inside my head, ready to stop me as soon as I tried to look closer.”

“Like a defence mechanism,” Luce murmured.

“That’s ridiculous,” Graham muttered, “how can a bloody storm do that?”

“Is it ridiculous?” The Doctor asked him sharply, spinning back to face everyone. “What did you say Yaz, before?”

The young woman looked down for a second, almost embarrassed, but the Doctor seemed to be taking her thoughts seriously at least. “It felt like it was watching me... watching us.”

“Storms aren’t sentient,” Vega stated immediately, her voice short. Yaz looked away, feeling like she did when she was a child and had been caught in a lie. Her cheeks grew warm, but the Doctor’s next words helped to reassure her.

“Think about it,” the Time Lord began. “The storm started after we got too close, when _we_ were poking around in the lab,” she continued, making sure to stress the words for Vega’s benefit. “You guys,” she gestured to the men, “said the people changed after the storm started, right?”

“Yeah,” Ryan confirmed, “but why now? Why are people changing now?” he asked, more than a little confused.

“This all stared before you lot even set foot on this planet...” Vega added, arms still folded.

“These plants,” the Doctor began, pointing to the samples on the table, “are part of this... multi-organism that is linked to the planet - their spores are all over the lab.” She continued to do the working aloud, her hands moving to emphasise her words. “The spores affect people... change them somehow,” she continued. “When we disturbed them, the sky changed – the planet reacted... and clearly the people – or whatever’s controlling them - reacted too.”

The Doctor looked around the room at her friends, trying to gauge whether they had managed to follow her logic.

Luce was the first to break the silence. “Tavin’s right then - it’s all linked,” she concluded, causing the Doctor to nod emphatically in agreement. “It has to be linked.”

“But,” Yaz ventured, still struggling to make sense of it all. “If this... _thing_ infects people with spores... why didn’t _you guys_ get infected when you went outside?” She turned to Ryan and Graham who appeared just as befuddled as her. “You walked right through everyone, didn‘t you?”

Ryan and Graham exchanged an uneasy look as they only now seemed to recognise the potential danger of their earlier actions. However, before they could acknowledge this, the Doctor chimed in excitedly.

“Exactly!” the blonde exclaimed, brightening suddenly. “Now we’re asking the _right_ questions! Ten points Yaz,” she announced, patting her friend on the arm as she moved past to gather some equipment from the tables.

Yaz beamed, sticking her tongue out at Ryan who had thrown his hands in the air in frustration.

“And... what’s keeping us safe?” Vega asked uncertainly, sobering the group just as quickly.

“Another good question - well done Vega,” the Doctor proclaimed, although this time her tone didn’t have its usual levity.

With that, the Time Lord suddenly broke into a jog, running back down Tavin’s hallway and out the front door.

* * *

The rest of the group followed hurriedly as their leader approached the nearest townsperson and moved to get into the man’s eyeline.

“Doctor, what-” Graham began, but he stopped short when the Time Lord held up a hand.

There was a low humming noise bouncing off the houses surrounding the plaza, but it was only when the group approached the individual person that they realised where it was coming from. The man standing before the Doctor seemed to be mumbling quietly to himself.

The Time Lord leaned closer to the entranced person - a young man of about Yaz and Ryan’s age - and clicked her fingers in front of his face. Nothing. She scrunched up her face at this, before reaching to place the back of her hand against his forehead. “Temperature,” she muttered, pulling out a stethoscope from her coat and placing it against the man’s chest, listening for his pulse. “Too fast,” she continued to herself, her expression grim. “I wonder...”

The Doctor returned the stethoscope to her coat pocket before squaring up to the man and gently placing her hands against his face, her fingers at his temples, and closed her eyes.

Instantly the Doctor’s mind was filled with darkness, noise and whispers. The inside of this poor human’s head was filled with a cacophony of sound, but it was fuzzy, almost like static. There were odd flashes of light too – purple and pulsating, much like that of the strange plants. All of this together was almost overwhelming for the Time Lord, and yet she had only been a part of this for a few seconds... she could only imagine how painful it must be for the humans... their heads were filled with pure and unrelenting chaos.

The Doctor’s companions had been watching this interaction with concern as a deep frown creased their friend’s brow. After only a few seconds she jerked her hands away with a sharp intake of breath, causing them all to jump slightly.

“What was it?” Yaz asked instantly. “Doctor, what did you see?”

The Time Lord dragged her gaze up to look at the group of humans surrounding her, green eyes widened in horror. She turned back to look at the young man before she spoke. “I’m sorry,” she murmured, as if the man might somehow be able to understand. “All of you,” she spoke louder now as she spun back to address the others. “Inside, now.” The severity of her tone prevented any arguments as she strode back towards the house, the rest of the group following quickly.

“Doctor!” Ryan called to no avail, struggling to keep up as they all ran back up the front steps and into the house. The Time Lord doubled back and shut the front door before sweeping past the others again, leading them into the living area.

“Doctor, what is going on?” It was Graham this time who demanded her attention.

The blonde finally turned to look at the others, her gaze landing on each of them in turn as she paced the length of the room. “It’s ingrained mind control,” she finally stated.

* * *

Silence descended on the room for a few moments, before it erupted into confusion.

“What?!” asked Graham in disbelief.

“Mind control?!” repeated Luce.

“How is that even possible?” asked Vega.

“Or...” the Doctor continued, rethinking her choice of words. “Maybe not quite all the way to mind control, more like...” she searched for the right words, “influence?” That sounded more like it. “The effects seem to come and go, we’ve already seen that its severity can vary,” she gestured to the green outside, reminding her companions of how Mrs Mosser had behaved just the day before.

“Yeah,” Graham agreed. “That Anora Mosser lady was much more insistent, trying to get our attention and talk to people.”

“But... she was snapped out of her trance quite quickly... this lot don’t seem to be able to do that,” Ryan continued.

“Yes, good work you two,” the Doctor told her friends, looking rather proud despite the circumstances. “And that shows...” she continued, thinking aloud, “that the methods for this _influence_ seem to vary,” she paused for a second. “Or adapt.”

“Wait a second,” Luce chimed in, ashen faced. “You said _ingrained_... as in...”

“As in a deep-rooted mechanism that affects your biology, your genetic makeup,” the Doctor confirmed, her face pained.

“What does that mean?” Vega asked. Her expression was hard but the desperation in her eyes indicated that she’d already started to put the pieces together.

“It’s erm,” Luce swallowed as she turned her haunted gaze to the lieutenant. “It’s in our DNA... and... in our-”

“It’s in our brains...” Tavin confirmed from where he sat on his desk, eyes far away as he stared at the floor. “This influence is in our brains – just like theirs,” he gestured loosely at the window, the people outside. “Like a ticking timebomb,” he continued, “just waiting for the right conditions for activation.”

“But... it can’t... Doctor?” Vega looked desperately at the Time Lord as the pieces fell into place, hoping against hope that her understanding was wrong. But the blonde lady only looked back at her, her face grim. She didn’t clarify either way, but Vega knew that she didn’t need to... it was obvious.

There was a tense pause before Graham finally spoke up. “How’s that?” he asked, turning to the Doctor.

The Time Lord began to explain, her sombre tone slowly growing more enthusiastic despite her best efforts. “The spores are linked to the planet, driven by an electrical impulse, like the ones mentioned in that report.”

“The one we got from the library?” Ryan asked, frowning as he tried to keep up.

“Exactly,” the Doctor confirmed, eyes sparkling. “It said that in 2929 the humans who settled here sent electrical impulses into the ground which accelerated the development of the planet – basically jumpstarted terraforming,” she explained, gesturing emphatically. “But,” she continued, suddenly losing her eager edge, “clearly there were more long-term consequences... this planet - Dionaea – adapted.”

“Adapted how?” asked Yaz.

“Absorbing all that energy caused changes... everything grew out of it, mutating as it went.”

“Like radiation?”

“Essentially,” the Doctor confirmed.

“The same sort of thing happened in Chernobyl in ’86 – I remember seeing it on the telly,” Graham chimed in. “All that radiation can just... change everything.”

“And then that mutated DNA gets passed on, generation after generation...”

“But I thought you said that in the future, even though humans move to other planets, we still come from Earth?” Yaz questioned. “That we didn’t evolve here?”

“That is true,” the Doctor began, “but these humans have been part of this planet’s ecosystem for so long-”

“Wait, you guys are from the past?” asked Luce, eyes widening as the confusing words she’d heard over the last two minutes clicked into place.

“Er... yeah, I guess,” Ryan confessed, exchanging a look with his friends.

“We come from Earth... in 2020,” Yaz chimed in, hoping to explain a bit more. “But we travel with the Doctor and sometimes we end up in the past or the future.”

“So... you have a... time machine?”

“Er... Doctor?”

“ _I_ have a time machine,” the Time Lord clarified. “And it’s not a time machine. Well, not strictly.”

“That little old box is a _time machine_?” Tavin asked.

“Oi!” the Doctor exclaimed, mock-insulted. “Rude.”

“Alright you lot, can we focus?” Graham asked, exasperated.

“No but wait, can’t your machine help us?” Luce chimed in; eyes bright with a new idea. “You were going to analyse some samples before anyway, right?”

“Good thinking Luce,” the Doctor told her, brightening somewhat as a plan began to form in her mind.

“How can that box help though?” Vega asked, arms folded as she frowned, her voice laced with scepticism. “I thought you didn’t know what you were looking for?”

“The _TARDIS_ ,” the Doctor stressed emphatically, “can help us find out more about this phenomenon... and maybe even find a way to stop it.” She paused for a moment before suddenly turning on the spot, her tone becoming playful once more. “And I _do_ know what I’m looking for!”

“You do?” the lieutenant pressed.

“Of _course_!” the Doctor shot back. “Well...” she continued, suddenly doubtful, “roughly. But! More importantly, now I have...” she rummaged in her pockets for more than a few seconds before finally grasping a vial and holding it up for everyone to see – “this!”

“What is it?” asked Ryan.

“We nabbed it from the lab – hoped it would give us an idea of what Mosser’s working on down there,” Luce explained. “It’s obviously got something to do with all this.”

“Well, even if that is the case... if we need this TARDIS...” Tavin began, “Mosser took it. It’ll be under lock and key.”

“We didn’t see it at the lab,” Yaz said.

“It’ll be at his estate,” Vega clarified. “But that facility...” she shook her head dejectedly. “It has armed guards, security cameras, electric fences... the whole thing. You expect us to sneak in there unnoticed?” she asked the Doctor.

“Oh no,” the Time Lord replied. “I actually think it’s about time I had a word with the infamous Mr Mosser in person.”

“I don’t know if that’s the best idea,” Vega cautioned, frowning. “Mosser isn’t exactly forthcoming when it comes to his work.”

“You don’t say,” the Doctor muttered under her breath, exchanging glances with her friends.

“But, to be honest,” Graham began, his voice laced with concern as he spoke mainly to Vega. “This doesn’t exactly seem like one of those things that might go away if we leave well enough alone...”

The lieutenant regarded him warily, her brows knitted together as she considered the older man’s words. She looked torn.

Tavin moved to stand closer to Vega, cautiously placing his hands on her shoulders as he spoke only to her. “They’re right, Min. This is bigger than just us, or our loyalties... our town,” he told her gently. “Something has changed. Somehow, Mosser must have sent out more impulses... and that will affect the whole of Dionaea.”

“But I thought you and Luce measured-”

“Only _after_ the plants started to change... he could have done it weeks, maybe even months before we noticed any changes. I think he’s playing a longer game here.”

Vega kept her grey eyes locked on the professor, but there was a shift in her expression. A resignation. Her next words confirmed that, despite her reservations, she finally agreed with his stance. “And we don’t even know to what end.”

“Exactly,” he said softly. “You know we have to do something.”

Vega only nodded; her mouth set in a hard line.

With this, the entire group turned to look at the Doctor, who had resumed her pacing with an intensity she’d not had before, almost as if she was marching now.

“So, Doctor,” Luce began, “where do we start?”

The Time Lord stopped still and looked about the room, her face hard. As they had been talking, she had been growing more and more angry as she considered what was at stake here. A whole planet, all of its people... Mosser had to be responsible, his name was the only common thread linking the various events of this rapidly growing, terrifying tapestry. She had a few guesses about what his motivations might be and none of them were good. All things considered, he seemed to be a very dangerous, very selfish man. He was not to be underestimated.

“Regardless of the reason why,” she began, any hint of her previous warmth gone from her tone and expression. “Putting an entire town - a whole planet - at risk and intentionally causing _pain_? I’d like to speak to the person who thinks they can justify that.”

Although the Doctor’s words were spoken relatively calmly, there was no disguising the fury burning behind them. It made her friends’ blood run cold.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to everyone who has left kudos and comments so far!! I really appreciate your interest, and every note helps me to keep writing :)


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